Jesus makes a man with a skin disease well again
1 Jesus came down from the hill and a large crowd followed him. 2 A man with a bad skin disease came to meet him. He went down on his knees in front of Jesus and he said, ‘Sir, if you want, you can make me well again. Please do it.’
8:2The man's disease was called leprosy, but it may be a different skin disease from the one we call leprosy today.
3 Jesus put out his hand towards the man and touched him. He said, ‘I do want to help you. Be clean again.’ Immediately, the man's skin was clean again.
4 Then Jesus said to the man, ‘Listen. You must not tell anyone about this. Instead, go and show yourself to the priest. Give the offering that Moses taught people to give after this kind of disease. This will show everyone that you are now well again.’
8:4Moses was a great leader of the Israelites. He gave God's laws to the people.
A Roman army officer trusts Jesus to help him
5 Jesus went into Capernaum. An officer in the Roman army came to meet him. He asked Jesus to help him. 6 He said, ‘Sir, my servant is lying in bed at home. He cannot move his legs and he has a lot of pain.’
8:5Rome ruled Israel at that time. The officer had authority over about 100 soldiers. He was not a Jew. Rome was an important city in the world at the time of Jesus. It was a powerful city and it had a strong army. The Romans ruled many other countries and they made the people obey the laws of Rome. They made them pay taxes to Rome.
7 Jesus said to the officer, ‘I will go with you to your house and I will make your servant well again.’
8 But the officer answered, ‘Sir, I am not good enough for you to come into my house. Instead, speak your command. I know that my servant will then be well again. 9 In my work, someone has authority over me. I also have authority over other soldiers. I say to one soldier, “Go!” and he goes. I say to another one, “Come!” and he comes. I say to my servant, “Do this!” and he does it.’
10 Jesus heard what the officer said. He was very surprised. He spoke to the crowd that was following him. ‘I tell you this. I have never found anyone like this man in all of Israel. Nobody else believes in me as well as he does. 11 I tell you, many people will come from all over the world to take their place in the kingdom of heaven. There they will sit down to eat with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 12 But other people who think that God's kingdom belongs to them will not be there. God's angels will throw them into the dark places that are far away from God. There those people will weep very much. They will bite their teeth together.’
8:12Jesus was talking about Jews who did not believe in him. Biting their teeth together may have shown that they were angry. Or it may have shown they were in much pain.
13 Then Jesus said to the officer, ‘Go home. You believed that I would make your servant well again. So I will do it for you.’ At that moment, the officer's servant did become well again.
Jesus makes many people well at Peter's house
14 Jesus went into Peter's house. There, he saw the mother of Peter's wife. She was lying in bed. She was ill and her body was very hot. 15 Jesus touched her hand and immediately she was well again. So she got up and she prepared food for Jesus.
16 That evening, people brought to Jesus many people who were ill. Many of them had bad spirits in them. Jesus spoke a word so that the bad spirits left them. He made everybody who was ill well again. 17 Jesus did this so that the words of the prophet Isaiah would become true:
‘He took away everything that makes us weak.
He carried away our diseases.’
People who want to be with Jesus
18 One day, Jesus saw a large crowd of people around him. So he told his disciples, ‘We should go across the lake to the other side.’
19 A teacher of God's Law came to Jesus and said to him, ‘Teacher, I will go with you everywhere that you go.’
20 Jesus replied, ‘Wild animals and birds have their own places to live. But I, the Son of Man, have no place of my own to lie down and rest.’
21 Another man who was one of Jesus' disciples said to him, ‘Sir, I want to come with you. But first, let me go home and bury my father. Then I will come with you.’
22 Jesus said to him, ‘No! You must come with me now. Let those people who are dead themselves bury their own dead people.’
Jesus stops a storm on the lake
23 Then Jesus got into a boat. His disciples also went with him. 24 Immediately a great storm began to blow across the lake. Water began to go into the boat and fill it. Jesus was sleeping. 25 The disciples went to him and they woke him. They said, ‘ Lord, save us! We will die here in the water!’
26 Jesus said to them, ‘You should not be so afraid. You should trust me more than you do!’ Then he stood up and he spoke strongly to the wind and the water. He said, ‘Stop!’ Then the wind and the water became quiet again.
27 The disciples were very surprised. They asked each other, ‘What kind of man is this? Even the wind and the water obey him!’
Jesus sends bad spirits into a group of pigs
28 Jesus arrived at the other side of Lake Galilee. He came to a place where the Gadarene people lived. Two men who had bad spirits in them came to meet him. These men lived outside, among some graves. They were very strong and dangerous. People were too afraid to walk that way because of them. 29 When the two men saw Jesus, they immediately shouted at him, ‘You are the Son of God! What are you doing here? Have you come to punish us before the right time comes?’
8:28This place is on the east side of Lake Galilee.
30 A large group of pigs was eating there, not very far away. 31 The bad spirits said to Jesus, ‘If you make us leave these men, please send us to those pigs. Let us go into them.’
32 Jesus said to the bad spirits, ‘Go!’ So the bad spirits came out of the men and they went into the pigs. All the pigs rushed together down the hill into the lake. They all died there in the water.
33 When this happened, the men who took care of the pigs ran away. They went into the town. They told people there everything that had happened to the men with the bad spirits in them. 34 So everybody came out of the town to meet Jesus. When they saw him, they said, ‘Please go away. Leave our part of the country.’
Matthew 9
Jesus helps a man who cannot walk
1 Then Jesus got back into the boat. He sailed across to the other side of the lake again. He went to Capernaum, the town where he was living.
2 Some men came to see Jesus there. They carried with them a man who could not move his legs. He was lying on a mat. Jesus knew that they believed in him. He said to the man who could not walk, ‘Do not be afraid, my friend. I forgive you for the wrong things that you have done.’
3 Then some teachers of God's Law said to themselves: ‘This man is speaking as if he is God. That is not right.’
4 Jesus knew what the teachers were thinking. So he said to them, ‘You should not think these bad things in your minds. 5 I said to this man, “I forgive you for the wrong things that you have done.” Instead, I could have said to him, “Stand up and walk.” Which one is easier for me to say? 6 But I want you to know this: I, the Son of Man, have authority on earth. I can forgive people for the wrong things that they have done.’
Then Jesus said to the man who could not walk, ‘Stand up. Pick up your mat and go home.’ 7 The man stood up and he went home.
8 The crowds of people saw what had happened. They were very surprised and afraid. They saw that God had given so much authority to a man. So they praised God and they said, ‘God is great!’
Jesus asks Matthew to be his disciple
9 Jesus went away from that place. While he walked, he saw a man called Matthew. Matthew's job was to take taxes from people. He was sitting in his office. Jesus said to him, ‘Come with me and be my disciple.’ So Matthew stood up and he went with Jesus.
10 Later, Jesus went to eat a meal in Matthew's house. Many bad people and men who took taxes also came to the house. They came to eat there with Jesus and his disciples.
11 Some Pharisees saw what was happening. They said to Jesus' disciples, ‘Your teacher is eating a meal with these bad people. That is not right. They are people who do not obey God, and some of them take taxes from people.’
9:11The Pharisees thought that people who did not obey all the Jewish rules were bad people.
12 Jesus heard what the Pharisees were saying. He said to them, ‘People who are well do not need a doctor. It is people who are ill that need a doctor. 13 Go and study what it says in the Bible. God says there, “I want people to be kind to each other. I do not want them only to offer sacrifices to me.” Some people think that they always obey God. I did not come to help people like that. But some people know that they have done wrong things. I am asking those people to come to me for help.’
Jesus' teaching is new teaching
14 Then the disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus. They said to him, ‘We often decide to fast for a time. The disciples of the Pharisees also do that. Why do your disciples never do that?’
9:14People might fast (stop eating for some time) to show that they needed God to help them.
15 Jesus answered them: ‘When a man marries, his friends cannot be sad. They cannot refuse to eat food while he is with them. But there will be a time when people will take the man away from his friends. At that time his friends will choose to fast.’
9:15While Jesus was with his disciples, they would be happy, so they would not fast. But soon his enemies would take him away. Then his disciples would be sad.
16 Then Jesus said, ‘Nobody uses a piece of new cloth to mend an old coat. If he does, the new cloth will cause the old cloth to tear again. It will make a bigger hole than before.
17 Nobody pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does that, the new wine will tear the old wineskins. He will lose the wine and the wineskins will be useless. Instead, you must put new wine into new wineskins. Then there will be nothing to spoil the wine or the wineskins.’
9:17The old wineskins were like the old Jewish rules. The new wine was like the things that Jesus was now teaching. Jesus' teaching needed a new way of thinking.
Jesus causes a dead girl to become alive again
18 While Jesus was saying these things to the people, a leader at the Jewish meeting place came to him. The man went down on his knees in front of Jesus and said to him, ‘My daughter has just died. Come to my house. Put your hand on her and then she will live again.’ 19 So Jesus went with the man. His disciples also went with them.
20 There was a sick woman in the crowd. She had been losing blood for 12 years. She came near to Jesus, behind him. She touched the edge of his coat. 21 The woman thought, ‘Even if I only touch his coat, I will become well again.’
22 Jesus turned around and he saw the woman. He said to her, ‘Young woman, do not be afraid. You are now well again because you believed in me.’ Immediately the woman became well again.
23 Then Jesus arrived at the Jewish leader's house. Some people there were making funeral music and the crowd was making a loud noise.
24 When Jesus saw this, he said to everybody in the house, ‘Go outside. This girl is not dead. She is only sleeping.’ The people laughed at Jesus when he said that. 25 The family sent all the people out of the house. Jesus went inside and he held the girl's hand. Immediately she stood up. 26 People in all that part of the country heard about what had happened.
Jesus causes two blind men to see again
27 Jesus left the house. While he walked along, two blind men began to follow him. They were shouting out to him, ‘ Son of David! Please be kind to us and help us!’
9:27Jesus was a descendant of King David.
28 Jesus went into a house and the blind men came to him there. Jesus asked them, ‘Do you believe that I can make your eyes become well?’
The men replied, ‘Yes, Master, we believe that you can do this.’
29 So Jesus touched the men's eyes. He said to them, ‘Because you believed in me, you will now see again.’ 30 Then immediately the men could see again. Jesus said strongly to them, ‘You must not tell anyone about this.’ 31 So the men went away. But they told everybody in that part of the country all about what Jesus had done for them.
Jesus causes a man to speak again
32 While those two men were leaving, some people brought another man to Jesus. This man could not speak because of a bad spirit in him. 33 Jesus made the bad spirit go out of the man and leave him. Then the man began to speak again. Everybody there was very surprised. They said, ‘Nobody has seen anything like this happen in Israel before.’
34 But the Pharisees said, ‘This man can send demons out of people because Satan, the ruler of demons, gives him authority.’
