Cleansing a Leper
Matthew 8When Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him. Just then, a leper came to him and worshiped him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing. Be made clean.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
The Faith of the Centurion
When Jesus came into Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking him for help, saying, “Lord, my servant lies in the house paralyzed, suffering terribly.”
Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”
The centurion answered, “Lord, I’m not worthy for you to come under my roof. Just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I am also a human under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and tell another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed, “Truly I tell y’all, I haven’t found so great a faith, not even in Israel. I tell y’all that many will come from the east and the west, and will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Empire of Heaven, but the children of the empire will be thrown out into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Jesus said to the centurion, “Go. Let it be done for you as you have believed.” His servant was healed in that hour.
Healings at Peter’s House
When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother lying sick with a fever. He touched her hand, and the fever left her. So she got up and served him. When evening came, they brought to him many possessed with demons. He cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, “He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.”+Isa 53:4
The Cost of Following Jesus
Now when Jesus saw large crowds around him, he gave orders to depart to the other side.
A scribe came and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Humanity has nowhere to lay his head.”
Another of his disciples said to him, “Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father.”
But Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
Jesus Calms the Storm
When he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. Suddenly, a violent storm arose on the sea, so that the waves covered the boat. But Jesus was asleep. The disciples went to wake him, saying, “Save us, Lord! We’re going to die!”
He said to them, “Why are y’all fearful, y’all of little faith?” Then he got up and rebuked the wind and the sea, and there was a great calm.
The men marveled, saying, “What kind of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Jesus Casts Out Demons
When he came to the other side, into the country of the Gadarenes, two people possessed by demons met him there, coming out of the tombs. They were so exceedingly violent that nobody could pass that way. And they cried out, saying, “What do we have to do with you, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?” Now, some distance from, a large herd of pigs was feeding. The demons begged him, saying, “If you cast us out, permit us to go into the herd of pigs.”
He said to them, “Y’all go!”
They came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the cliff into the sea and died in the water. Those who fed them fled and went away into the city and reported everything, including what happened to those who were possessed by demons. Then the whole city came out to meet Jesus. When they saw him, they begged him to depart from their borders.