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Jesus looked around at his disciples and said to them, "How hard it will be for rich people to enter the Kingdom of God!"
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The disciples were shocked at these words, but Jesus went on to say, "My children, how hard it is to enter the Kingdom of God!
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It is much harder for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle."
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At this the disciples were completely amazed and asked one another, "Who, then, can be saved?"
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Jesus looked straight at them and answered, "This is impossible for human beings but not for God; everything is possible for God."
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Then Peter spoke up, "Look, we have left everything and followed you."
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"Yes," Jesus said to them, "and I tell you that those who leave home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and for the gospel,
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will receive much more in this present age. They will receive a hundred times more houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and fields - and persecutions as well; and in the age to come they will receive eternal life.
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But many who are now first will be last, and many who are now last will be first."
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Jesus and his disciples were now on the road going up to Jerusalem. Jesus was going ahead of the disciples, who were filled with alarm; the people who followed behind were afraid. Once again Jesus took the twelve disciples aside and spoke of the things that were going to happen to him.
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"Listen," he told them, "we are going up to Jerusalem where the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the teachers of the Law. They will condemn him to death and then hand him over to the Gentiles,
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who will make fun of him, spit on him, whip him, and kill him; but three days later he will rise to life."
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Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus. "Teacher," they said, "there is something we want you to do for us."
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"What is it?" Jesus asked them.
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They answered, "When you sit on your throne in your glorious Kingdom, we want you to let us sit with you, one at your right and one at your left."
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Jesus said to them, "You don't know what you are asking for. Can you drink the cup of suffering that I must drink? Can you be baptized in the way I must be baptized?"
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"We can," they answered. Jesus said to them, "You will indeed drink the cup I must drink and be baptized in the way I must be baptized.
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But I do not have the right to choose who will sit at my right and my left. It is God who will give these places to those for whom he has prepared them."
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When the other ten disciples heard about it, they became angry with James and John.
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So Jesus called them all together to him and said, "You know that those who are considered rulers of the heathen have power over them, and the leaders have complete authority.
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This, however, is not the way it is among you. If one of you wants to be great, you must be the servant of the rest;
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