37. The next day, Jesus, Peter, John, and James came down from the mountain. A large group of people met Jesus.
38. A man in the group shouted to him, “Teacher, please come and look at my son. He is the only child I have.
39. An evil spirit comes into him, and then he shouts. He loses control of himself and foams at the mouth. The evil spirit continues to hurt him and almost never leaves him.
40. I begged your followers to make the evil spirit leave my son, but they could not do it.”
41. Jesus answered, “You people today have no faith. Your lives are all wrong. How long must I be with you and be patient with you?” Then Jesus said to the man, “Bring your son here.”
42. While the boy was coming, the demon threw the boy to the ground. The boy lost control of himself. But Jesus gave a strong command to the evil spirit. Then the boy was healed, and Jesus gave him back to his father.
43. All the people were amazed at the great power of God. The people were still amazed about all the things Jesus did. He said to his followers,
44. “Don’t forget what I will tell you now: The Son of Man will soon be handed over to the control of other men.”
45. But the followers did not understand what he meant. The meaning was hidden from them so that they could not understand it. But they were afraid to ask Jesus about what he said.
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 he said to the followers, “Whoever accepts a little child like this in my name is accepting me. And anyone who accepts me is also accepting the one who sent me. The one among you who is the most humble—this is the one who is great.”
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. Jesus said to him, “Don’t stop him. Whoever is not against you is for you.”