< Matthew 8 >
1 When Jesus had come down from the hill, great crowds followed him.
2 He saw a leper who came up, and bowed to the ground before him, and said, “Master, if only you are willing, you are able to make me clean.”
3 Stretching out his hand, Jesus touched him, saying as he did so, “I am willing; become clean.” Instantly he was made clean from his leprosy;
4 and then Jesus said to him, “Be careful not to say a word to anyone, but go and show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift directed by Moses, as evidence of your cure.”
5 After Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion in the Roman army came up to him, entreating his help.
6 “Sir,” he said, “my manservant is lying ill at my house with a stroke of paralysis, and is suffering terribly.”
7 “I will come and cure him,” answered Jesus.
8 “Sir,” the centurion went on, “I am unworthy to receive you under my roof; but only speak, and my manservant will be cured.
9 For I myself am a man under the orders of others, with soldiers under me; and, if I say to one of them ‘Go,’ he goes, and to another ‘Come,’ he comes, and to my slave ‘Do this,’ he does it.”
10 Jesus was surprised to hear this, and said to those who were following him, “Never I tell you, in any Israelite have I met with such faith as this!
11 Yes, and many will come in from East and West and take their places beside Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven;
12 while the heirs to the kingdom will be banished into the darkness outside; there, there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.”
13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go now, and it will be according to your faith.” And the man was cured that very hour.
14 When Jesus went into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law prostrated with fever.
15 On his taking her hand, the fever left her, and she rose and began to take care of him.
16 In the evening the people brought to Jesus many who were possessed by demons; and he drove out the spirits with a word, and cured all who were ill,
17 in fulfillment of these words in the prophet Isaiah – ‘He took our infirmities on himself, and bore the burden of our diseases.’
18 Seeing a crowd around him, Jesus gave orders to go across.
19 A teacher of the Law came up to him, and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
20 “Foxes have holes,” answered Jesus, “and wild birds their nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
21 “Master,” said another, who was a disciple, “let me first go and bury my father.”
22 But Jesus answered, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their dead.”
23 Then he got into the boat, followed by his disciples.
24 Suddenly so great a storm came up on the sea, that the waves broke right over the boat. But Jesus was asleep;
25 and the disciples came and roused him. “Master,” they cried, “save us; we are lost!”
26 “Why are you so timid?” he said. “You of little faith!” Then Jesus rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and a great calm followed.
27 The men were amazed, and exclaimed, “What kind of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!”
28 On getting to the other side – the region of the Gadarenes – Jesus met two men who were possessed by demons, coming out of the tombs. They were so violent that no one was able to pass that way.
29 Suddenly they shrieked out, “What do you want with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before our time?”
30 A long way off, there was a herd of many pigs, feeding;
31 and the foul spirits began begging Jesus, “If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.”
32 “Go,” he said. The spirits came out, and entered the pigs; and the whole herd rushed down the steep slope into the sea, and died in the water.
33 At this the men who tended them ran away and went to the town, carrying the news of all that had occurred, and of what had happened to the possessed men.
34 At the news the whole town went out to meet Jesus, and, when they saw him, they entreated him to go away from their region.
