34. While he was saying these things, a cloud came and covered them, and they became afraid as the cloud covered them.
35. A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen. Listen to him!”
36. When the voice finished speaking, only Jesus was there. Peter, John, and James said nothing and told no one at that time what they had seen.
37. The next day, when they came down from the mountain, a large crowd met Jesus.
38. A man in the crowd shouted to him, “Teacher, please come and look at my son, because he is my only child.
39. An evil spirit seizes my son, and suddenly he screams. It causes him to lose control of himself and foam at the mouth. The evil spirit keeps on hurting him and almost never leaves him.
40. I begged your followers to force the evil spirit out, but they could not do it.”
41. Jesus answered, “You people have no faith, and your lives are all wrong. How long must I stay with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.”
42. While the boy was coming, the demon threw him on the ground and made him lose control of himself. But Jesus gave a strong command to the evil spirit and healed the boy and gave him back to his father.
43. All the people were amazed at the great power of God.While everyone was wondering about all that Jesus did, he said to his followers,
44. “Don’t forget what I tell you now: The Son of Man will be handed over to people.”
45. But the followers did not understand what this meant; the meaning was hidden from them so they could not understand. But they were afraid to ask Jesus about it.
46. Jesus’ followers began to have an argument about which one of them was the greatest.
47. Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he took a little child and stood the child beside him.
48. Then Jesus said, “Whoever accepts this little child in my name accepts me. And whoever accepts me accepts the One who sent me, because whoever is least among you all is really the greatest.”
49. John answered, “Master, we saw someone using your name to force demons out of people. We told him to stop, because he does not belong to our group.”
50. But Jesus said to him, “Don’t stop him, because whoever is not against you is for you.”
51. When the time was coming near for Jesus to depart, he was determined to go to Jerusalem.