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"Then who has any chance at all?" the others asked.
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"No chance at all," Jesus said, "if you think you can pull it off by yourself. Every chance in the world if you trust God to do it."
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Peter tried to regain some initiative: "We left everything we owned and followed you, didn't we?"
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"Yes," said Jesus, "and you won't regret it. No one who has sacrificed home, spouse, brothers and sisters, parents, children - whatever -
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will lose out. It will all come back multiplied many times over in your lifetime. And then the bonus of eternal life!"
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Then Jesus took the Twelve off to the side and said, "Listen carefully. We're on our way up to Jerusalem. Everything written in the Prophets about the Son of Man will take place.
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He will be handed over to the Romans, jeered at, made sport of, and spit on. Then, after giving him the third degree, they will kill him.
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In three days he will rise, alive."
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But they didn't get it, could make neither heads nor tails of what he was talking about.
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He came to the outskirts of Jericho. A blind man was sitting beside the road asking for handouts.
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When he heard the rustle of the crowd, he asked what was going on.
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They told him, "Jesus the Nazarene is going by."
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He yelled, "Jesus! Son of David! Mercy, have mercy on me!"
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Those ahead of Jesus told the man to shut up, but he only yelled all the louder, "Son of David! Mercy, have mercy on me!"