When he came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him. 2 And a man with leprosy came up and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
3 Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean.” And at once his leprosy was cleansed. 4 Then Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one. But go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift Moses commanded — as a witness to them.”[1]
5 When he entered Capernaum, an army officer came to him, pleading with him 6 and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”
7 Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”
8 But the officer answered, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For 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.”[2]
10 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. He said to those following him, “Amen, I tell you, I have not found such faith in anyone in Israel. 11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and sit down at the table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 12 while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness — where there will be sobbing and grinding of teeth.”
13 Then Jesus said to the officer, “Go. Let it be done for you just as you believed.” And his servant was healed at that very hour.
14 When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. 15 He touched her hand, and the fever left her. She got up and began to serve him.
16 When evening came, they brought to him many who were demon-possessed. He drove out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick — 17 so that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled: “He took up our weaknesses and carried our diseases.”[3]
18 When Jesus saw the large crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side. 19 A scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
20 Jesus said to him, “Foxes have dens and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
21 Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”[4]
22 But Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
23 Then he got into the boat, and his disciples followed him. 24 And a great storm rose up on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves. But Jesus was sleeping. 25 They came and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to die!”
26 He 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.
27 The men were astonished and said, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the sea obey him!”
28 When he came to the other side, into the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men came out of the tombs and met him. They were so violent that no one could pass that way.[5] 29 And they cried out, “What do you want with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?”
30 Now a large herd of pigs was feeding some distance away.[6] 31 The demons begged him, “If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.”
32 He said to them, “Go.” So they came out and went into the pigs. And the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the water. 33 Those tending the pigs ran off. They went into the town and reported everything — including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. 34 And the whole town came out to meet Jesus. When they saw him, they begged him to leave their region.
Notes
Note 1. The rite in view is laid out in Leviticus 14: a healed leper brought two birds, cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop, followed over eight days by sacrifices and an anointing with oil. Only a priest could inspect and certify a person clean. ↩
Note 2. The Greek word is doulos — a slave, someone owned as property, not a hired servant. Traditional translations often soften it to “servant,” but the Gospels use it for real slaves: the ones beaten in the parables, sold to pay a debt, thrown out into the dark. We render it “slave” throughout. Note that in Luke’s telling the sick man is called both doulos (7:2) and pais (7:7) — the same person, named two ways. In Matthew he is only ever pais; the doulos in this verse is one of the officer’s own slaves, in his illustration. ↩
Note 3. This quotes Isaiah 53:4. Matthew’s wording stays close to the Hebrew, which speaks of bearing bodily infirmities and pains. The Greek Septuagint version had already shifted the same line toward the language of sin. ↩
Note 4. Jewish burial normally happened within a day of death (Deuteronomy 21:22–23; Josephus, Jewish War 4.317). ↩
Note 5. Matthew names “the Gadarenes” here, while Mark and Luke say “Gerasenes” — both cities of the Decapolis, a cluster of Greek-influenced towns east of the Jordan. The traditional site of the episode is Gergesa (modern Kursi), on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, where a steep slope runs down toward the water. ↩
Note 6. A herd of pigs signals Gentile country. Jewish law counted the pig unclean and forbade both eating and raising it, so such a herd would not have been raised in Jewish Galilee, though it was ordinary in the largely Gentile Decapolis on the far side of the lake. ↩