The miracles of Jesus

Shh, I’m trying to listen! Who is that, talking up there on the mountain? That’s Jesus. He’s telling people how to live. This speech is called the Sermon on the Mount, and is Jesus’s most famous sermon.

Shhh! Let’s go a bit closer... What is Jesus saying? He’s saying that it’s the humble and the meek who will go to heaven. They will be blessed.

He talks about love, that if someone strikes you on the cheek, you shouldn’t hit them back, but rather turn the other cheek towards them. He also teaches that people should treat others the way they themselves want to be treated. He says: “Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them.” This is known as the Golden Rule. When Jesus teaches people of God, he tells stories that remind people of their daily lives, he speaks in parables so that his message is easier to understand. To explain how important it is to live a simple life in order to get to heaven, for instance, he says that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

During this period, Jesus does more than simply preach. He also performs miracles. One day thousands of people come to the wilderness to listen to Jesus. The disciples say that the people should go to the nearby villages to buy themselves something to eat. But Jesus thinks that the disciples can feed the people themselves.

The disciples say that they only have five loaves and two fish. Jesus takes the five loaves and two fish and says a prayer, he blesses the food. He then gives the food to the disciples so that they can hand it out to the people. When the people eat, it turns out that the food is enough for everyone: no matter how much each person takes, there is always more left for the others. Everyone can eat until they are full.

Jesus performs more miracles: He cures the blind. He walks on water. And even raises people from the dead. One day Jesus goes to a temple and sees that there are merchants who are selling animals so that the believers can sacrifice these to God. The merchants sell the animals for a really high price.

They want to earn money. Jesus becomes enraged and drives out the merchants and the animals. He says “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.” Jesus becomes more and more popular among the poor and the outcasts. But he also has many enemies who are criticising him. The wealthy are afraid that Jesus will rebel against the Roman empire, and that it will be harder to make money then.

Many powerful people in society also criticise Jesus because there are so many sinners who are following him. Jesus answers with a parable and says that it isn’t the healthy that need healing, but the sick. When the religious people in society, the Pharisees, ask Jesus which of the commandments from the holy scriptures is the most important, he says: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself." Those who have read a lot of religious texts, the scribes, don’t like what Jesus is saying. Because that commandment isn’t in the holy texts. Jesus’s enemies get more and more nervous, they want to find a way to get rid of him!

Or even... to kill him. Who can Jesus trust… maybe not even his own apostles.