Matthew 8:1-17

When Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him. A man with a serious skin disease came and bowed down in front of him. The man said to Jesus, “Sir, if you’re willing, you can make me clean.”  Jesus reached out, touched him, and said, “I’m willing. So be clean!” Immediately, his skin disease went away, and he was clean. Jesus said to him, “Don’t tell anyone about this! Instead, show yourself to the priest. Then offer the sacrifice Moses commanded as proof to people that you are clean.” When Jesus went to Capernaum, a Roman army officer came to beg him for help. The officer said, “Sir, my servant is lying at home paralyzed and in terrible pain.” Jesus said to him, “I’ll come to heal him.” The officer responded, “Sir, I don’t deserve to have you come into my house. But just give a command, and my servant will be healed. As you know, I’m in a chain of command and have soldiers at my command. I tell one of them, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and another, ‘Come!’ and he comes. I tell my servant, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” Jesus was amazed when he heard this. He said to those who were following him, “I can guarantee this truth: I haven’t found faith as great as this in anyone in Israel. I can guarantee that many will come from all over the world. They will eat with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. The citizens of that kingdom will be thrown outside into the darkness. People will cry and be in extreme pain there.” Jesus told the officer, “Go! What you believed will be done for you.” And at that moment the servant was healed. When Jesus went to Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law in bed with a fever. Jesus touched her hand, and the fever went away. So she got up and prepared a meal for him. In the evening the people brought him many who were possessed by demons. He forced the ⌞evil⌟ spirits out of people with a command and cured everyone who was sick. So what the prophet Isaiah had said came true: “He took away our weaknesses and removed our diseases.”