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Shunned at Home

¹ After all those great things were done, Jesus struck a long trot back to his hometown and his cowboys followed him. ² When the day of rest came, Jesus went and did a little preaching at the local church. People who listened were wondering where he came up with all these different interpretations of God's word. They also wondered where all his wisdom came from and if the miracles he had been performing came from the same place. They all shook their heads and kept asking one another, ³ "Isn't this that carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son? Aren't those his sisters who live near here?" Because of all their questions, they didn't hear him; because of their looking for answers elsewhere they couldn't see him; and they got offended that this ordinary fellow would stand up in front and dare to teach them.

⁴ Then Jesus said to 'em all, "A cowboy who rides for God gets respect for what he does everywhere except his hometown. All the people he grew up with, including his family, think they know who he really is, but they don't."

⁵ Jesus didn't do any miracles there, except to put his hands on a few sick people and heal them. ⁶ He was amazed at how blind all these people he knew so well were. He stayed around that part of the country though and taught among the ranches and cow towns.

Jesus Sends His Cowboys Out to Gather

⁷ One day, Jesus called his cowboys together and sent them out to gather people for his Father's brand two by two. ⁸ He gave them authority over evil spirits and told them to take nothing along on their journey except their saddles. They couldn't fill their saddlebags with money nor morsels of any kind. ⁹ They couldn't even take an extra blue jean jacket.

¹⁰ He told 'em, "When you get to a ranch, stay at their headquarters until you leave that part of the country. ¹¹ If a ranch won't welcome you or listen to the good news, leave that ranch and shake the dust from that place off your boots. That way you will not take any part of an unbelieving outfit with you when you ride off."

¹² So the cowboys set off in pairs to spread the good news and gather people for God's outfit. They told everyone to turn from their wicked ways and start riding for God. ¹³ They cast out many demons that were hurting people and put a little dab of oil on people's heads to show that they ride for God. Many folks were healed.

John the Baptizer's Head is Cut Off

¹⁴ During this, King Herod heard about everything Jesus was doing. Some were telling him John the Baptist had been raised from the dead to do miracles ¹⁵ and others said Jesus was Elijah or a new cowboy of God like there used to be in the olden days. ¹⁶ But when Herod heard all the rumors he said, "I cut off John the Baptist's head and now he has come back!"

¹⁷ Herod was quite a fright because he had had John arrested and killed because he'd made a promise to his wife. That old gal was a burr under his saddle blanket because she made him kill John. ¹⁸ John had criticized Herod for marrying her in the first place. This wasn't just some gal off the street. She had been married to Herod's brother, Philip. It was against God's law to marry your brother's wife if he was still alive and Philip was still kicking around somewhere.

¹⁹ So Herodias (Herod's no-account wife) held a grudge against John and wanted to kill him, ²⁰ but Herod had kind of taken a liking to a cowboy like John who spoke the truth and rode for God. He didn't really know what to think about the things that John said, but he liked listening to him.

²¹ So on Herod's birthday, he threw himself a party and all the important people in his kingdom came to it. ²² Herodias's daughter came in and danced for the king. He took such a liking to it that he slipped up and said she could have anything she wanted²³ —even up to half of his kingdom! ²⁴ She went to her mother and asked her what she should request and her mother said, "The head of John the Baptist on a big ol' plate."

²⁶ This shook the king up something fierce, but he'd made a promise in front of a lot of people so he kept it. ²⁷ He sent the executioner to the dungeon in which John was being held and the fellow ²⁸ came back with John's head and presented it to the king's daughter. She took it straight to her mom. ²⁹ When the cowboys who rode alongside John heard that he had been killed, they came and got his body and buried it with the respect he deserved.

Jesus Feeds a Bunch of Folks

³⁰ When all the cowboys got back from their first big gathering for God, they all sat around and told Jesus their stories. ³¹ He told 'em, "Let's go somewhere private so we can all talk and rest up." There were tons of people hanging around and wanting to hear everything Jesus and his cowboys were saying; so much so that they hadn't even had a chance to get a bite to eat.

³² So Jesus and his boys saddled up and headed out, ³³ but many saw where they were going and followed them. ³⁴ When Jesus saw there were so many people wanting to know about riding for God, he felt sorry for them. They were like a stray herd looking for water so Jesus taught them many things. In other words, he watered them. Jesus spent a long time teaching and it got to be very late.

³⁵ Some of his cowboys came up³⁶ and told Jesus to send everyone back to town to eat. ³⁷ But he told them, "Y'all get 'em something to eat."

They said, "You want us to ride to town and get all these people something to eat?"

³⁸ Jesus responded, "How many loaves of bread do you have already?"

They went and checked their saddle bags and came back and said, "We've got five loaves of bread and a couple of pieces of fish."

³⁹ Jesus told his cowboys to sit everyone down in groups of fifty and up to one hundred.

⁴⁰ While this was being done, ⁴¹ Jesus took the five loaves and two pieces of fish, looked up to God and gave thanks, and broke the bread. He gave the pieces of bread and fish to his cowboys to pass out to the hungry crowd. ⁴² There was enough for everybody and no one went away hungry. ⁴³ There was even some for leftovers the next day. ⁴⁴ Jesus fed over five thousand men, not counting all the women and children that were there too.

Jesus Strolls on Water

⁴⁵ Just as soon as they were done, Jesus told his cowboys to get into a nearby boat and go across the sea to Bethsaida. Jesus said goodbye to his boys as the crowd filed away and ⁴⁶ then he went up on a nearby mountain to pray and talk to his Dad.

⁴⁷ Later that evening, a storm caught the cowboys while in their boat. ⁴⁸ Jesus could see his boys straining against the oars as they fought the tumbling sea. When the night was nearly over, he decided to go to Bethsaida and beat them there by walking across the sea as if it were a dry patch of ground. As he was passing them by, ⁴⁹ they saw him and got scared out of their skin. ⁵⁰ They thought he was some sort of ghost and were terrified. But at the height of their fear, he spoke to them and said, "Don't be scared, boys! It's just me." ⁵¹ Then he walked over and climbed into the boat with 'em. When he did, the storm completely stopped. The cowboys couldn't believe what they had just seen. ⁵² Unfortunately, their hearts were hard because they had already forgot about the loaves and the fish earlier in the day.

⁵³ They anchored the boat when they finally got across, and as they came ashore, ⁵⁴ people already started recognizing who they all were. ⁵⁵ The people ran and told everyone around. Sick people started showing up to be healed. ⁵⁶ Wherever Jesus and his cowboys went it was like this. People asked if they could just touch his vest, and all who touched him were healed.