Dual Panel1LARGE crowds followed him when he came down from the hillside.
2There was a leper who came and knelt in front of him. "Sir," he said, "if you want to, you can make me clean."
3Jesus stretched out his hand and placed it on the leper saying, "Of course I want to. Be clean!" And at once he was clear of the leprosy. "Mind you say nothing to anybody,"
4Jesus told him. "Go straight off and show yourself to the priest and make the offering for your recovery that Moses prescribed, as evidence to the authorities."
5Then as he was coming into Capernaum a centurion approached.
6"Sir," he implored him, "my servant is in bed at home paralysed and in dreadful pain."
7"I will come and heal him," said Jesus to him.
8"Sir," replied the centurion, "I'm not important enough for you to come under my roof. You have only to give the order and my servant will recover.
9I'm a man under authority myself, and I have soldiers under me. I can say to one man 'Go' and I know he'll go, or I can say 'Come here' to another and I know he'll comeor I can say to my slave 'Do this' and he'll do it."
10When Jesus heard this, he was astonished. "Believe me," he said to those who were following him, "I have never found faith like this, even in Israel!
11I tell you that many people will come from east and west and be fellowguests with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven.
12But those who should have belonged to the kingdom will be banished to the darkness outside, where there will be tears and bitter regret."
13Then he said to the centurion, "Go home now, and everything will happen as you have believed it will." And his servant was healed at that actual moment.
14Then, on coming into Peter's house Jesus saw that Peter's motherinlaw had been put to bed with a high fever.
15He touched her hand and the fever left her. And then she got up and began to see to his needs.
16When evening came they brought to him many who were possessed by evil spirits, which he expelled with a word. Indeed, he healed all who were ill.
17Thus was fulfilled Isaiah's prophecyHimself took our infirmities and bare our diseases.
18When Jesus had seen the great crowds around him he gave orders to cross over to the other side of the lake.
19But before they started, one of the scribes came up to Jesus and said to him, "Master, I will follow you wherever you go."
20"Foxes have earths, birds in the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere that he can call his own," replied Jesus.
21Another of his disciples said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father."
22But Jesus said to him, "Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead."
23Then he went aboard the boat, and his disciples followed him.
24Before long a terrific storm sprang up and the boat was awash with the waves. Jesus was sleeping soundly
25and the disciples went forward and woke him up. "Lord, save us!" they cried. "We are drowning!"
26"Why are you so frightened, you littlefaiths?" he replied. Then he got to his feet and rebuked the wind and the waters and there was a great calm.
27The men were filled with astonishment and kept saying, "Whatever sort of man is thiswhy, even the winds and the waters do what he tells them!"
28When he arrived on the other side (which is the Gadarenes' country) he was met by two devilpossessed men who came out from among the tombs. They were so violent that nobody dared to use that road.
29"What have you got to do with us, you Son of God?" they screamed at him. "Have you come here to torture us before our time?"
30It happened that in the distance there was a large herd of pigs feeding.
31So the devils implored him, "If you throw us out, send us into the herd of pigs!"
32"Then go!" said Jesus to them. And the devils came out and went into the pigs. Then quite suddenly the whole herd stampeded down the steep cliff into the lake and was drowned.
33The swineherds took to their heels, and ran to the town. There they poured out the whole story of what had happened to the two men who had been devilpossessed.
34Whereupon the whole town came out to meet Jesus, and as soon as they saw him implored him to leave their territory.