8:1 As Jesus went down the mountain, he was followed by a large crowd.

8:2 Suddenly a leper came toward him, and he worshiped him and said, “Sir, if you choose, you can make me clean!”

8:3 “I so choose!” said Jesus, reaching out to touch him. “Be clean!” And immediately his leprosy was completely gone.

8:4 Then Jesus added, “See to it that you speak to no one, but go straight to show yourself to the priest and confirm your healing by offering the gift commanded by Moses.”

8:5 Then Jesus entered Capernaum, where he was approached by a Roman army captain. He pleaded,

8:6 “Sir, my servant is paralyzed and homebound, suffering terribly!”

8:7 “I will come to heal him,” said Jesus.

8:8 “Master,” replied the Roman officer, “I am unworthy to have you come under my roof. But just say the word and my servant will be healed.

8:9 After all, I too am one who is under the authority of another, and I have soldiers under me. I tell one of them ‘Go!’ and he goes; I tell another ‘Come!’ and he comes; I tell my slave ‘do this!’ and he does it.”

8:10 When Jesus heard this, he was very surprised and said to those following him, “I sure haven’t found anyone in Israel with that much faith!

8:11 And I tell you this: many will come from east and west to dine with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of the heavens,

8:12 yet the subjects will be exiled to the darkness outside, where people will wail and grind their teeth.”

8:13 Then he said to the Roman officer, “Go! You have what you believed.” And his servant was healed that very hour.

8:14 Then Jesus came to Peter’s house, where he saw that Peter’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever.

8:15 So he touched her hand, and the fever left her. Then she got up and served him a meal.

8:16 By evening, many people were brought to him suffering from demon possession. He threw the demons out by speaking to them, and he healed all who were sick.

8:17 In this way he fulfilled the words of the prophet Isaiah, “He took away our illnesses and lifted our burdens.”

8:18 When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave the order to go to the other side of the lake.

8:19 But a scripture scholar came up to him and said, “Teacher, I’ll follow you wherever you go.”

8:20 “Foxes have burrows to live in, and the birds of the sky have nests,” he replied, “But the Human has no place to sleep tonight.”

8:21 Another one of his disciples said to him, “Master, first let me go and bury my father.”

8:22 “Follow me,” said Jesus, “and let the dead bury their own dead.”

8:23 So then Jesus got into the boat, and his disciples followed him.

8:24 But suddenly there was a tremendous storm at sea, such that the boat was about to be overcome by the waves. Somehow Jesus was sleeping through it,

8:25 so they went and woke him up and said, “Master, help us! We are about to die!”

8:26 “What cowards you are!” he replied. “Such skeptics!” So he got up and rebuked the wind and sea, and there was a great calm.

8:27 The people were astounded and said, “Who is this, that the wind and the sea listen to him?!”

8:28 When they got to the other side in the area of the Gerasenes, they were met by two demonized people coming out from among the graves. They were so ferocious that no one was able to pass through there.

8:29 Suddenly they shouted, “What do you want with us, God-Man? Have you come here to torture us before you’re supposed to?”

8:30 There was a herd of hogs in the distance,

8:31 so the demons pleaded with him, “If you’re going to throw us out, send us into that herd of hogs.”

8:32 He told them to go ahead, and they went into the hogs. Suddenly the whole herd stampeded over the cliff and into the sea, where they all drowned.

8:33 The herders ran away into the city, and they told them everything that had happened, especially about the demonized people.

8:34 Suddenly the whole city went out to see Jesus, and when they did, they begged him to leave their area.