Jesus heals a man who has leprosy
(Also in Mark 1:40-45; Luke 5:12-16)
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.’
Jesus heals a Roman officer's servant
(Also in Luke 7:1-10; John 4:43-54)
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.
Jesus heals Peter's mother-in-law and other sick people
(Also in Mark 1:29-39; Luke 4:38-44)
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:
‘He healed our diseases
and he took away our sicknesses.’
What it means to follow Jesus
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.’
Jesus calms the storm
(Also in Mark 4:35-41; Luke 8:22-25)
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.’
Jesus chases_demons out of 2 men
(Also in Mark 5:1-20; Luke 8:26-39)
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.
