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, âMaster, if you want to, you can heal my body.â
3-4Jesus reached out and touched him, saying, âI want to. Be clean.â Then and there, all signs of the leprosy were gone. Jesus said, âDonât 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.â
5-6As Jesus entered the village of Capernaum, a Roman captain came up in a panic and said, âMaster, my servant is sick. He canât walk. Heâs in terrible pain.â
7Jesus said, âIâll come and heal him.â
8-9âOh, no,â said the captain. âI donât want to put you to all that trouble. Just give the order and my servant will be fine. Iâm a man who takes orders and gives orders. I tell one soldier, âGo,â and he goes; to another, âCome,â and he comes; to my slave, âDo this,â and he does it.â
10-12Taken aback, Jesus said, âIâve 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 directionsâstreaming in from the east, pouring in from the west, sitting down at Godâs kingdom banquet alongside Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then those who grew up âin the faithâ but had no faith will find themselves out in the cold, outsiders to grace and wondering what happened.â
13Then Jesus turned to the captain and said, âGo. What you believed could happen has happened.â At that moment his servant became well.
14-15By this time they were in front of Peterâs house. On entering, Jesus found Peterâs 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 Isaiahâs 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. âIâll go with you, wherever,â he said.
20Jesus was curt: âAre you ready to rough it? Weâre not staying in the best inns, you know.â
21Another follower said, âMaster, excuse me for a couple of days, please. I have my fatherâs funeral to take care of.â
22Jesus refused. âFirst things first. Your business is life, not death. Follow me. Pursue life.â
* * *
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 boatâand he was sound asleep! They roused him, pleading, âMaster, save us! Weâre going down!â
26Jesus reprimanded them. âWhy are you such cowards, such faint-hearts?â Then he stood up and told the wind to be silent, the sea to quiet down: âSilence!â The sea became smooth as glass.
27The men rubbed their eyes, astonished. âWhatâs going on here? Wind and sea stand up and take notice at his command!â
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, âWhat business do you have giving us a hard time? Youâre the Son of God! You werenât supposed to show up here yet!â Off in the distance a herd of pigs was grazing and rooting. The evil spirits begged Jesus, âIf you kick us out of these men, let us live in the pigs.â
32-34Jesus said, âGo ahead, but get out of here!â 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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Matthew 8: MSG
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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.