Thursday, September 3

²⁴After Jesus left there, he went to the region of Tyre. When he went into a house, he did not want anyone to know, but he was not able to escape notice. ²⁵Instead, a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him and came and fell at his feet. ²⁶The woman was a Greek, of Syrophoenician origin. She asked him to cast the demon out of her daughter. ²⁷He said to her, “Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and to throw it to the dogs.” ²⁸She answered, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” ²⁹Then he said to her, “Because you said this, you may go. The demon has left your daughter.” ³⁰She went home and found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

³¹Then Jesus went out again from the region of Tyre and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee in the region of the Decapolis. ³²They brought to him a deaf man who had difficulty speaking, and they asked him to place his hands on him. ³³After Jesus took him aside privately, away from the crowd, he put his fingers in the man’s ears, and after spitting, he touched his tongue. ³⁴Then he looked up to heaven and said with a sigh, “Ephphatha” (that is, “Be opened”). ³⁵And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his tongue loosened, and he spoke plainly. ³⁶Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone. But as much as he ordered them not to do this, they proclaimed it all the more. ³⁷People were completely astounded and said, “He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

¹In those days there was another large crowd with nothing to eat. So Jesus called his disciples and said to them, ²“I have compassion on the crowd because they have already been here with me three days, and they have nothing to eat. ³If I send them home hungry, they will faint on the way, and some of them have come from a great distance.” ⁴His disciples answered him, “Where can someone get enough bread in this desolate place to satisfy these people?” ⁵He asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They replied, “Seven.” ⁶Then he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. After he took the seven loaves and gave thanks, he broke them and began giving them to the disciples to serve. So they served the crowd. ⁷They also had a few small fish. After giving thanks for these, he told them to serve these as well. ⁸Everyone ate and was satisfied, and they picked up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. ⁹There were about 4,000 who ate. Then he dismissed them. ¹⁰Immediately he got into a boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.

¹¹Then the Pharisees came and began to argue with Jesus, asking for a sign from heaven to test him. ¹²Sighing deeply in his spirit he said, “Why does this generation look for a sign? I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to this generation.”