Matthew 8
8
A Man Cleansed
1When he came down from the mountain, large crowds#Mt 5:1; Lk 3:7 followed him. 2Right away#Mk 1:40–44; Lk 5:12–14 a man with leprosy#8:2 Gk lepros; a term for various skin diseases, also in v. 3; see Lv 13–14 came up and knelt before him,#Mt 9:18; 15:25; 18:26; 20:20; Jn 9:38; Ac 10:25 saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
3Reaching out his hand, Jesus touched him, saying, “I am willing; be made clean.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4Then Jesus told him, “See that you don’t tell anyone;#Mt 9:30; 17:9; Mk 5:43; 7:36; 8:30 but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”#Lv 14:3–4,10; Lk 5:14; 17:14
A Centurion’s Faith
5When he entered Capernaum,#Lk 7:1–10; Jn 4:46–54 a centurion came to him, pleading with him, 6“Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, in terrible agony.”
7He said to him, “Am I to come and heal him?” #8:7 Or “I will come and heal him.”
8“Lord,” the centurion replied, “I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.#Ps 107:20; Lk 15:19,21 9For I too am a man under authority, having soldiers under my command.#8:9 Lit under me I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.”
10Hearing this, Jesus was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with so great a faith. 11I tell you that many will come from east and west to share the banquet#8:11 Lit recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.#Is 49:12; 59:19; Mk 1:11; Lk 13:29; Eph 3:6 12But the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”#Mt 13:42,50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30; Lk 13:28 13Then Jesus told the centurion, “Go. As you have believed,#Mt 9:22,29; Jn 4:53 let it be done for you.” And his servant was healed that very moment.#8:13 Or that hour; lit very hour
Healings at Capernaum
14Jesus went into Peter’s house#Mk 1:29–34; Lk 4:38–41 and saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. 15So he touched her hand, and the fever left her. Then she got up and began to serve him. 16When evening came, they brought to him many who were demon-possessed. He drove out the spirits#Mk 3:15; 1Tm 4:1; 1Jn 4:1 with a word and healed all who were sick,#Mt 4:24; 8:33; Ac 19:12 17so that what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
He himself took our weaknesses
and carried our diseases. # 8:17 Is 53:4 #
Is 53:4; Mt 1:22
The Cost of Following Jesus
18When Jesus saw a large crowd#8:18 Other mss read saw large crowds#Mt 14:22; Mk 4:35; Lk 8:22; Jn 6:15–17 around him, he gave the order to go to the other side of the sea. 19A scribe approached him and said,#Lk 9:57–60 “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
20Jesus told him, “Foxes have dens, and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man#Dn 7:14; Mt 9:6; 12:8; 13:41; Mk 8:31 has no place to lay his head.”
21“Lord,” another of his disciples said, “first let me go bury my father.”
22But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
Wind and Waves Obey Jesus
23As he got into the boat,#Mk 4:36–41; Lk 8:22–25; Jn 6:16–21 his disciples#Mt 10:1; 26:56; Mk 3:7; 16:20; Lk 6:13; Jn 12:16 followed him. 24Suddenly, a violent storm arose on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves — but Jesus kept sleeping. 25So the disciples came and woke him up, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to die!”
26He said to them, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea,#Ps 65:7; 89:9; 107:29; Mt 6:30; Lk 4:39 and there was a great calm.
27The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the sea obey#Mk 1:27; Lk 5:9 him!”
Demons Driven Out by Jesus
28When he had come to the other side,#Mk 5:1–17; Lk 8:26–37 to the region of the Gadarenes,#8:28 Other mss read Gergesenes two demon-possessed men met him as they came out of the tombs. They were so violent that no one could pass that way. 29Suddenly they shouted, “What do you have to do with us,#8:29 Other mss add Jesus Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?” #Jdg 11:12; 2Sm 16:10; Mk 1:24; Lk 4:34; Jn 2:4; Ac 8:7
30A long way off from them, a large herd of pigs was feeding. 31“If you drive us out,” the demons begged him, “send us into the herd of pigs.”
32 “Go!” he told them. So when they had come out, they entered the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and perished in the water. 33Then the men who tended them fled. They went into the city and reported everything, especially what had happened to those who were demon-possessed. 34At that, the whole town went out to meet Jesus. When they saw him, they begged him to leave their region.#1Kg 17:18; Lk 5:8; Ac 16:39
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Matthew 8: CSB
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© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers
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.