Matthew 8
8
He Carried Our Diseases
1-2Jesus came down the mountain with the cheers of the crowd still ringing in his ears. Then a leper appeared and dropped to his knees before Jesus, praying, “Master, if you want to, you can heal my body.”
3-4Jesus reached out and touched him, saying, “I want to. Be clean.” Then and there, all signs of the leprosy were gone. Jesus said, “Don’t talk about this all over town. Just quietly present your healed body to the priest, along with the appropriate expressions of thanks to God. Your cleansed and grateful life, not your words, will bear witness to what I have done.”
5-6As Jesus entered the village of Capernaum, a Roman captain came up in a panic and said, “Master, my servant is sick. He can’t walk. He’s in terrible pain.”
7Jesus said, “I’ll come and heal him.”
8-9“Oh, no,” said the captain. “I don’t want to put you to all that trouble. Just give the order and my servant will be fine. I’m a man who takes orders and gives orders. I tell one soldier, ‘Go,’ and he goes; to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
10-12Taken aback, Jesus said, “I’ve yet to come across this kind of simple trust in Israel, the very people who are supposed to know all about God and how he works. This man is the vanguard of many outsiders who will soon be coming from all directions—streaming in from the east, pouring in from the west, sitting down at God’s kingdom banquet alongside Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then those who grew up ‘in the faith’ but had no faith will find themselves out in the cold, outsiders to grace and wondering what happened.”
13Then Jesus turned to the captain and said, “Go. What you believed could happen has happened.” At that moment his servant became well.
14-15By this time they were in front of Peter’s house. On entering, Jesus found Peter’s mother-in-law sick in bed, burning up with fever. He touched her hand and the fever was gone. No sooner was she up on her feet than she was fixing dinner for him.
16-17That evening a lot of demon-afflicted people were brought to him. He relieved the inwardly tormented. He cured the bodily ill. He fulfilled Isaiah’s well-known revelation:
He took our illnesses,
He carried our diseases.
Your Business Is Life, Not Death
18-19When Jesus saw that a curious crowd was growing by the minute, he told his disciples to get him out of there to the other side of the lake. As they left, a religion scholar asked if he could go along. “I’ll go with you, wherever,” he said.
20Jesus was curt: “Are you ready to rough it? We’re not staying in the best inns, you know.”
21Another follower said, “Master, excuse me for a couple of days, please. I have my father’s funeral to take care of.”
22Jesus refused. “First things first. Your business is life, not death. Follow me. Pursue life.”
* * *
23-25Then he got in the boat, his disciples with him. The next thing they knew, they were in a severe storm. Waves were crashing into the boat—and he was sound asleep! They roused him, pleading, “Master, save us! We’re going down!”
26Jesus reprimanded them. “Why are you such cowards, such faint-hearts?” Then he stood up and told the wind to be silent, the sea to quiet down: “Silence!” The sea became smooth as glass.
27The men rubbed their eyes, astonished. “What’s going on here? Wind and sea stand up and take notice at his command!”
The Madmen and the Pigs
28-31They landed in the country of the Gadarenes and were met by two madmen, victims of demons, coming out of the cemetery. The men had terrorized the region for so long that no one considered it safe to walk down that stretch of road anymore. Seeing Jesus, the madmen screamed out, “What business do you have giving us a hard time? You’re the Son of God! You weren’t supposed to show up here yet!” Off in the distance a herd of pigs was grazing and rooting. The evil spirits begged Jesus, “If you kick us out of these men, let us live in the pigs.”
32-34Jesus said, “Go ahead, but get out of here!” Crazed, the pigs stampeded over a cliff into the sea and drowned. Scared to death, the swineherds bolted. They told everyone back in town what had happened to the madmen and the pigs. Those who heard about it were angry about the drowned pigs. A mob formed and demanded that Jesus get out and not come back.
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Matthew 8
8
The Cleansing of a Leper
Mk 1:40–45; Lk 5:12–16
1When He came down from the mountains, large crowds followed Him. 2#Mt 18:26; 15:25And then a leper came and worshipped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”
3Jesus reached out His hand and touched him, saying, “I will. Be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4#Lev 14:2–32; Mt 9:30Then Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one. But go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded as a testimony to them.”
The Healing of a Centurion’s Servant
Lk 7:1–10; Jn 4:43–54
5#Lk 7:1–10And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion#Zec 9:9. came to Him, entreating Him, 6#Mt 4:24and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home, sick with paralysis, terribly tormented.”
7Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”
8#Ps 107:20The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But speak the word only, and my servant will be healed. 9For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this man, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
10#Mt 15:28; Mk 6:6When Jesus heard it, He was amazed and said to those who followed, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith, no, not in Israel. 11#Mal 1:11; Isa 59:19And I say to you that many will come from the east and west and will dine with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12#Mt 25:30; 13:42; 13:50But the sons of the kingdom will be thrown out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
13#Mt 9:22Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go your way. And as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” And his servant was healed that very moment.
The Healing of Many People
Mk 1:29–34; Lk 4:38–41
14#1Co 9:5When Jesus entered Peter’s house, He saw his wife’s mother, lying sick with a fever. 15He touched her hand, and the fever left her. And she rose and served them.
16When the evening came, they brought to Him many who were possessed with demons. And He cast out the spirits with His word, and healed all who were sick, 17#Isa 53:4; Mt 1:22to fulfill what was spoken by Isaiah the prophet,
“He Himself took our infirmities
and bore our sicknesses.”#Isa 53:4.
The Would-Be Followers of Jesus
Lk 9:57–62
18#Mk 4:35; Lk 8:22Now when Jesus saw large crowds around Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side. 19Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.”
20Jesus replied, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.”
21Another of His other disciples said to Him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”
22#Mt 9:9; Jn 1:43But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their dead.”
The Calming of a Storm
Mk 4:35–41; Lk 8:22–25
23Then He entered the boat, and His disciples followed Him. 24Suddenly a great storm arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. 25His disciples went to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!”
26#Mt 6:30; Ps 65:7He replied, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He rose and rebuked the winds and the sea. And there was a great calm.
27#Mk 1:27The men were amazed, saying, “What kind of Man is this that even the winds and the sea obey Him!”
The Healing of the Gergesene Demoniacs
Mk 5:1–20; Lk 8:26–39
28#Mk 5:1–20; Lk 8:26–39When He came to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met Him two men possessed with demons, coming out of the tombs, extremely fierce, so that no one might pass by that way. 29#Mk 1:24; Lk 4:34Suddenly they cried out, saying, “What have we to do with You, Jesus, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?”
30Now a good way off from them was a herd of many swine feeding. 31So the demons begged Him, saying, “If You cast us out, permit us to go away into the herd of swine.”
32He said to them, “Go!” And when they came out, they went into the herd of swine. And suddenly the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters. 33Those who kept them fled, and went their ways into the city, and told everything, including what had happened to those possessed by the demons. 34#Ac 16:39; Lk 5:8The whole city came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw Him, they begged Him to depart out of their region.
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