Jesus Heals a Leper
1When Jesus walked down the mountain after the sermon, a big crowd followed him.2A man suffering from leprosy [1] knelt in front of Jesus and said, “Please, sir, you can heal me and make me clean [2] again if you want to.”
3“I want to,” Jesus said. Jesus reached out and touched the man and said, “Be healed.” In that moment, the man’s leprosy vanished; and he was clean again.
4Jesus told the man, “See to it that you don’t tell anyone about this. I want you to go straight to the priest and take along the sacrificial offering [3] required in the law of Moses. That way the priest can let everyone know that you’re clean again.”
Roman Soldier of Faith
5Jesus was headed back to the town of Capernaum when a Roman centurion [4] came to meet him. The soldier said, 6“Please, sir, I have a young servant back at home, lying sick in bed. He’s paralyzed and in a lot of pain.”7Jesus said, “I’ll come with you and heal him.”
8But the soldier answered, “Sir, I don’t deserve to have you in my home. You don’t need to bother going there. Just say the word and you’ll heal the boy. 9I understand the chain of command. There are officers over me, and there are soldiers under my command. If I tell one soldier, ‘Go,’ he goes. If I tell another soldier, ‘Come,’ he comes. If I tell my servant, ‘Get this done,’ he gets it done.”
10When Jesus heard this, he admired the man.
He turned to the people following him and said, “Let me tell you something. Nowhere in all of Israel have I come across such remarkable faith. 11Let me tell you something else. Non-Jewish people from all over the world will join Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12But many of the Jews who think they’re already citizens of the kingdom are going to get tossed out into the darkness. They’ll cry so hard that they’ll grind their teeth.” [5]
13Jesus told the soldier, “You can go on home now. When you get there, you’ll find that what you believed would happen has happened.” The soldier’s servant was healed that very hour.
Jesus Heals Peter’s Mother-in-Law
14When Jesus finally got to Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying sick in bed with a fever. 15Jesus touched the woman’s hand, and her fever disappeared. She got right up and fixed him a meal.16Word spread, and people started showing up for healing that evening. Jesus performed exorcisms, driving out the evil spirits with nothing more than a word. He healed every sick person brought to him.
17This fulfills something that the prophet Isaiah predicted:
“He takes our sicknesses.
He carries off our diseases.” [6]
A Scribe Who Follows Jesus
18Swarmed by the crowd, Jesus told his disciples it was time to sail to the other side of the lake. 19As they were getting ready to go, one of the Jewish scholars known as scribes came up to Jesus. The scribe said, “Teacher, I can see that you’re leaving; but I want you to know I’ll follow you wherever you go.”20Jesus said, “Foxes live in dens. Birds nest in branches. But the Son of Humans [7] doesn’t even have a place to lay his head.”
21Another disciple who had been following him said, “Master, please excuse me from this trip so I can go bury my father.”
22Jesus told him, “Make other arrangements. It’s more important that you tell people about the kingdom of heaven.” [8]
Jesus Calms a Storm
23Jesus climbed into the boat, and the disciples followed. 24While they were out on the lake, a sudden windstorm swooped down on them. High waves swamped the boat, and it started to sink. Jesus slept.25The disciples woke Jesus and screamed, “Master, save us! We’re going to die!”
26Jesus said, “Why are you scared? You sure don’t have much faith.” Then Jesus stood up and ordered the wind and the sea to calm down. A great hush fell upon the lake.
27The men realized what they had just seen was absolutely amazing. Among themselves they asked, “What kind of a man is this—someone who can order the wind and the sea to obey him?”
Demon-possessed Pigs Drown
28When they got to the other side of the lake, they climbed out of the boat and onto the territory of the Gerasenes. [9] Two demon-possessed men came out of the nearby graveyard. These men were violent. People avoided the area because the men would not let them pass.29The men screamed at Jesus, “Son of God, what are you doing here now? It’s not time to torture us yet. Have you come to torture us early?”
30A large herd of pigs was eating off in the distance. 31The demons begged Jesus, “If you’re going to make us come out, send us into that herd of pigs over there.”
32Jesus told the demons, “Leave.” So they left the men and went into the pigs. That’s when the entire herd rushed down the steep bank and into the Sea of Galilee, where they drowned.
33The pig herders ran into town and told everyone about this, and about what happened to the demon-possessed men. 34Everyone in town came to meet Jesus. But when they got there, they pleaded with him to go away and leave them alone. They didn’t want him in their territory.
