Matthew 8

₁Jesus came down from the mountain and a lot of people followed Him. ₂A man who had leprosy came to Jesus. He knelt before Jesus and he said: ‘Please, if You want to, You can heal me and make me pure.’

₃Jesus put out his hand and He touched the man and He said to him: ‘I want to heal you. You are healed now.’ ₄Jesus said to the man: ‘You must not tell anyone that I have healed you. Go and show the priest that you are well and give the offering that the laws of Moses say you must give, to show that you are healed. Then the priests will know that you are pure.’

₅Jesus went to the town of Capernaum. When He came into the town, a Roman officer came to Him. He begged Jesus to help him. ₆He said to Jesus: ‘Lord, my servant is very sick at home. He can not walk and he has a lot of pain.’

₇Jesus said to him: ‘I will come to your house and I will heal him.’ ₈But the officer said to Jesus: ‘No, Sir, I am not a Jew. I am not good enough for You to come into my house. You can just say my servant must be healed and then he will be well. ₉I must also do what the more important officers tell me to do and I have soldiers who must listen to me. When I tell one of them to go, then he goes. And when I tell another soldier to come, then he comes. When I tell my servant to do something, he does it.’

₁₀When Jesus heard what the officer said, He was surprised. He said to all the people who followed Him: ‘I say this to you and it is sure: I have not seen any of the Israelites who believed as strongly as this man. ₁₁I am telling you that on the day_of_the_Lord many people will come from all over the world. They will come and eat with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and have a feast with God in heaven who rules over all. ₁₂But the people who think that they are the only children_of_Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and who think God is only their King, must know: God will throw them out into the dark place. There people will cry and bite hard on their teeth in pain.’

₁₃Jesus said to the officer: ‘Go back to your home. What you believe will happen.’

And his servant was healed then.

₁₄Jesus went to Peter's house. He saw that Peter's mother-in-law was sick in bed and she had a fever. ₁₅Jesus touched her hand and then she was healed. She did not have a fever anymore. She got up and gave Him food to eat.

₁₆That evening the people brought a lot of sick people to Jesus, and also people who had evil_spirits in them. Jesus talked to the evil_spirits and He chased them out. He also healed all the sick people. ₁₇Jesus did this to cause things to happen as the prophet Isaiah had said. He said:

₁₈Jesus saw all the people who were with Him and He said to his disciples: ‘We must go over to the other side of the lake.’

₁₉A teacher_of_the_Laws came to Jesus and said to Him: ‘Teacher, I will go with You to any place that You go to.’ ₂₀Jesus said to him: ‘Foxes live in holes and birds live in nests, but I, the Son of man, do not have a place that is my home.’

₂₁Another disciple said to Jesus: ‘Lord, I want to go with You, but I first have to wait until my father has died and I have buried him, then I will go with You.’ ₂₂But Jesus said to him: ‘Come with Me. It is more important to follow Me than to wait until your father has been buried.’

₂₃Jesus got into a boat and his disciples went with Him. ₂₄A strong storm wind started to blow and the waves of the lake became so high that the water came into the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. ₂₅The disciples went to Jesus and they woke Him up. They said: ‘Lord, help us. We are going to drown.’

₂₆Jesus said to them: ‘Why are you afraid? Why do you have so little faith?’

Jesus got up and He told the wind and the waves to stop and to be still. The wind stopped and the water became calm and still. ₂₇The disciples were amazed and they said: ‘Who is He? He is not a man like us. The wind and the water listen to Him and do what He says.’

₂₈Jesus and his disciples went to the other side of Lake Galilee into the land of the Gadarenes. There were 2 people who came to Jesus. They had demons in them and they came from the graveyard. These men were very dangerous. No one could walk on that road. ₂₉They immediately started to shout at Jesus and said: ‘Son of God, what do You want to do with us? Did You come here to punish and hurt us now before the time?’

₃₀There were many pigs not far from them. ₃₁The demons begged Jesus and said: ‘If You chase_us_out, please let us go into the pigs.’

₃₂Jesus said they could go. The demons came out of the 2 men and went into the pigs. The pigs started to run down the mountain and into the lake. They all drowned. ₃₃The men who looked after the pigs ran away, and they told the news to all the people. They also told them what had happened to the 2 men who had demons in them. ₃₄All the people of the town came to Jesus to meet Him. When they saw Jesus, they begged Him to go away from their town.