Matthew 8
8
1When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him; 2#Mk 1.40-44; Lk 5.12-14. #Mt 9.18; 15.25; 18.26; 20.20; Jn 9.38. and behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” 3And he stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4#Mk 3.12; 5.43; 7.36; 8.30; 9.9; Lev 14.2. And Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to any one; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to the people.”#8.4 Greek to them
5 #
Lk 7.1-10; Jn 4.46-53. As he entered Caperna-um, a centurion came forward to him, beseeching him 6and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, in terrible distress.” 7And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8But the centurion answered him, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9For I am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 10When Jesus heard him, he marveled, and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I say to you, not even#8.10 Other ancient authorities read with no one in Israel have I found such faith. 11#Lk 13.28-29; Is 49.12; 59.19; Mal 1.11; Ps 107.3. I tell you, many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 12#Mt 13.42,50; 22.13; 24.51; 25.30; Lk 13.28. while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.” 13And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; be it done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment.
14 #
Mk 1.29-34; Lk 4.38-41; Mt 4.23-24. And when Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever; 15he touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and served him. 16That evening they brought to him many who were possessed with demons; and he cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick. 17#Is 53.4. This was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah, “He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.”
18 #
Lk 9.57-60; Mk 4.35; Lk 8.22. Now when Jesus saw great crowds around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. 19And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” 20And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.” 21Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 22#Mt 9.9; Jn 1.43; 21.19. But Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”
23 #
Mk 4.36-41; Lk 8.22-25. And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. 24And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. 25And they went and woke him, saying, “Save, Lord; we are perishing.” 26#Mt 6.30; 14.31; 16.8. And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O men of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. 27And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”
28 #
Mk 5.1-17; Lk 8.26-37. And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes,#8.28 Other ancient authorities read Gergesenes; some, Gerasenes two demoniacs met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way. 29#Judg 11.12; 2 Sam 16.10; Mk 1.24; Jn 2.4. And behold, they cried out, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?” 30Now a herd of many swine was feeding at some distance from them. 31And the demons begged him, “If you cast us out, send us away into the herd of swine.” 32And he said to them, “Go.” So they came out and went into the swine; and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and perished in the waters. 33The herdsmen fled, and going into the city they told everything, and what had happened to the demoniacs. 34And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their neighborhood.
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Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America
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.