Immerse: Messiah - Flipbook - Page 337
8:18–9:2
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“He took our sicknesses
and removed our diseases.”
When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he instructed his disciples to cross
to the other side of the lake.
Then one of the teachers of religious law said to him, “Teacher, I will
follow you wherever you go.”
But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but
the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.”
Another of his disciples said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury
my father.”
But Jesus told him, “Follow me now. Let the spiritually dead bury their
own dead.”
Then Jesus got into the boat and started across the lake with his disciples.
Suddenly, a fierce storm struck the lake, with waves breaking into the boat.
But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him up, shouting,
“Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”
Jesus responded, “Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!” Then he
got up and rebuked the wind and waves, and suddenly there was a great
calm.
The disciples were amazed. “Who is this man?” they asked. “Even the
winds and waves obey him!”
When Jesus arrived on the other side of the lake, in the region of the
Gadarenes, two men who were possessed by demons met him. They came
out of the tombs and were so violent that no one could go through that area.
They began screaming at him, “Why are you interfering with us, Son of
God? Have you come here to torture us before God’s appointed time?”
There happened to be a large herd of pigs feeding in the distance. So the
demons begged, “If you cast us out, send us into that herd of pigs.”
“All right, go!” Jesus commanded them. So the demons came out of the
men and entered the pigs, and the whole herd plunged down the steep
hillside into the lake and drowned in the water.
The herdsmen fled to the nearby town, telling everyone what happened
to the demon-possessed men. Then the entire town came out to meet
Jesus, but they begged him to go away and leave them alone.
Jesus climbed into a boat and went back across the lake to his own town.
Some people brought to him a paralyzed man on a mat. Seeing their faith,
Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “Be encouraged, my child! Your sins are
forgiven.”
