Matthew 8

¹When he came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him. ²And look, a man with a skin disease came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you have the power to make me clean.” ³Reaching out his hand, Jesus touched him and said, “I am willing; be made clean.” And immediately his skin disease was cleansed. ⁴Then Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one; instead, go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

⁵When he entered Capernaum, a centurion approached him, appealing to him ⁶and saying, “Lord, my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.” ⁷Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” ⁸But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy for you to come under my roof; but only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. ⁹For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I say to this 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 this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have found such faith with no one in Israel. ¹¹I tell you that many will come from east and west and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of the Heavens, ¹²while the natural heirs of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” ¹³Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go; let it be done for you just as you believed.” And the servant was healed in that very hour.

¹⁴When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying down with a fever. ¹⁵He touched her hand, and the fever left her; she got up and began to serve him. ¹⁶When evening came, they brought to him many who were possessed by demons, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. ¹⁷This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying: “He himself took our infirmities and bore our diseases.”

¹⁸When Jesus saw the large crowds around him, he gave orders to depart for the other side of the sea. ¹⁹A scribe approached and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” ²⁰Jesus said to him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” ²¹Another of his disciples said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” ²²But Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

²³When he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. ²⁴And look, a great upheaval occurred on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but Jesus was sleeping. ²⁵They went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” ²⁶He said to them, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. ²⁷The men were amazed, saying, “What kind of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?”

²⁸When he came to the other side, into the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met him as they were coming out of the tombs. They were so exceptionally violent that no one was strong enough to pass by that way. ²⁹And look, they shrieked, “What do you want with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?” ³⁰Now a large herd of pigs was feeding some distance from them. ³¹The demons began pleading with him, “If you cast us out, send us into the herd of pigs.” ³²He said to them, “Go.” So they came out and went into the pigs, and look, the whole herd charged down the steep bank into the sea and died in the waters. ³³The herdsmen fled, went into the city, and reported everything, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. ³⁴Then the whole city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region.