Immerse: Messiah - Flipbook - Page 284
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IMMERSE
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MESSIAH
7:19–8:3
your body cannot defile you? Food doesn’t go into your heart, but only
passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.” (By saying this,
he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God’s eyes.)
And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you. For
from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality,
theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy,
slander, pride, and foolishness. All these vile things come from within;
they are what defile you.”
Then Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of Tyre. He didn’t
want anyone to know which house he was staying in, but he couldn’t keep
it a secret. Right away a woman who had heard about him came and fell at
his feet. Her little girl was possessed by an evil spirit, and she begged him
to cast out the demon from her daughter.
Since she was a Gentile, born in Syrian Phoenicia, Jesus told her, “First
I should feed the children—my own family, the Jews. It isn’t right to take
food from the children and throw it to the dogs.”
She replied, “That’s true, Lord, but even the dogs under the table are
allowed to eat the scraps from the children’s plates.”
“Good answer!” he said. “Now go home, for the demon has left your
daughter.” And when she arrived home, she found her little girl lying quietly in bed, and the demon was gone.
Jesus left Tyre and went up to Sidon before going back to the Sea of Galilee
and the region of the Ten Towns. A deaf man with a speech impediment
was brought to him, and the people begged Jesus to lay his hands on the
man to heal him.
Jesus led him away from the crowd so they could be alone. He put his
fingers into the man’s ears. Then, spitting on his own fingers, he touched
the man’s tongue. Looking up to heaven, he sighed and said, “Ephphatha,”
which means, “Be opened!” Instantly the man could hear perfectly, and his
tongue was freed so he could speak plainly!
Jesus told the crowd not to tell anyone, but the more he told them not
to, the more they spread the news. They were completely amazed and said
again and again, “Everything he does is wonderful. He even makes the deaf
to hear and gives speech to those who cannot speak.”
About this time another large crowd had gathered, and the people ran out
of food again. Jesus called his disciples and told them, “I feel sorry for these
people. They have been here with me for three days, and they have nothing
left to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will faint along the way. For
some of them have come a long distance.”
