Matthew 8
1 After Jesus came down from the hill, large crowds followed him. 2 Notably,a someone with leprosy went up to him and bowed down to him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can cleanse me.” 3 Jesus reached out, gently clasped him with his hand, and replied, “I am willing. Be cleansed!” Immediately, his leprosy was cleansed. 4 Then Jesus said to him, “Be sure not to tell anyone. Just go and show yourself to the priest and bring the offering Moses instructed as evidence for them.”
5 When Jesus arrived back in Capernaum, a Centurionb took him aside, pleading with him. 6 “Lord, my attendantc is laid up at home paralyzed with torturous pain.”
7 Jesus replied, “I will come and heal him.”
8 But the centurion responded, “Lord, I am not worthy of having you come under my roof. Just say the word, and my attendant will be healed. 9 I am also a person under authority, and having soldiers under me, I say to this one, ‘Go’ and he goes and to another ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my attendant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
10 When Jesus heard that, he was impressed. He told his followers, “I’m telling you, honestly, I haven’t found anyone in Israel with as much trust as this. 11 Hear when I say, many will come from east and west to share a table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Heavenly Reign. 12 But the natural heirsd of that Reign will be thrown out into the outer darkness.e There’ll be weeping and gnashing of teeth in anguish there.”
13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go, exactly what you trusted to happen will happen for you.” And the attendant was healed right then.
14 Jesus arrived at Peter’s house and saw his wife’s mother languid and feverish, 15 and he held her hand. The fever went away, and she got up and began to care for them.f
16 When evening came, many people haunted by demons were brought to him. He got rid of the spirit-breaths with a word, and everyone who was sick was healed. 17 In that way, he lived outg what the prophet Isaiah said: "He took up our injuries, and he carried our illnesses."h
18 After Jesus had seen the large crowd around him, he gave directions to go to the other side of the sea. 19 A Bible scholar went up to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
20 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens, and birds of the heavens have nests, but the Son of Humanityi has nowhere to lay his head.”
21 Another of his studentsj told him, “Lord, first allow me to go and bury my father.”
22 Jesus responded, “Follow me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead.”
23 Then he got in the boat, and his students followed him. 24 Then—unexpectedly—there was a huge storm over the sea, and the boat was about to be swallowed by the waves. Yet Jesus was sleeping. 25 They came and woke him up and stammered, “Lord… save… we’re dying!”k
26 Jesus challenged them, “Why are you full of fear, you who barely trust?”l Then he scolded the stormy winds and sea, and it calmed completely.
27 Everyone was amazed and wondered, “What type of person is this? Even the storm and the sea listen to him!”
28 When Jesus arrived at the shore in the area around The Gadarenes, two people who were haunted by demonsm were coming from the graves, and they confronted him. They were extremely aggressive, which made it so that no one had been able to travel by that road.
29 Shockingly, they wailed and said, “What business do you have with us, Son of God!n Have you come here to harass us before it’s time?” 30 A large herd of pigs was feeding in the distance, 31 and the demons begged him, “If you banish us, send us to the herd of pigs.”
32 “Go away!” Jesus told them. They left and went to the pigs, and—astoundingly—the whole herd stampeded down the hill into the sea and drowned in the water.
33 The people feeding the pigs ran away, went into the city, and spread the news of everything that happened with the two who had been haunted by demons. 34 And—notably—the whole city came out to meet Jesus. When they saw him, they begged him to move on from their territory.
FOOTNOTES:
a The Greek is idou, which literally means ‘look.’ It is an idiomatic way to catch the audience’s attention and point out that something noteworthy is happening.
b Centurions were a type of Roman officer. What’s important here was the fact that it was an important Roman figure.
c The word here is not related to doulos, as in the enslaved person of chapter 6. This is a word that can mean ‘child’ or ‘servant,’ usually someone who has become a part of the household and is viewed with affection. It is likely to be a personal attendant (indentured servant/slave) or companion (in the sense of a hired person whose role is to accompany and serve, not a peer).
d The most direct translation is ‘sons,’ but the word huios was also regularly used more figuratively to refer to an heir or descendant more broadly as well as those who were dedicated to following a particular movement or figure and emulating them.
e The phrase “outer darkness” conveys the severe consequence of being cast away from the community and presence of God, much like the expulsion of those deemed impure in ancient Israel. This concept parallels the scapegoat ritual on the Day of Atonement, where the goat, symbolically carrying the community’s deviations, was sent out into the wilderness, emphasizing a state of sorrowful separation and estrangement from the community of God.
f Literally, ‘serve them’ like Stephen and the other ‘servants/deacons’ diakonoi in Acts. It likely meant she got them food as guests in her home.
g Traditionally, ‘fulfilled.’ It could be translated as something like ‘given a fuller meaning.’ It literally means ‘filled full.’ Much like ‘order fulfillment’ when purchasing an order to be delivered, it means to act on something and bring it to reality in a new way.
h Citation of Isaiah 53:4
i Reference to Ezekiel—“Son of Man” was how Ezekiel referred to himself—and to Daniel 7:13-14. This is one of the loftiest titles Jesus could have used for himself and likely played a key role in accusations against him of attempting to usurp the royal throne. At the same time, he could also claim just to be calling himself a prophet in the tradition of Ezekiel.
j Since this is “another of his students,” the implication seems to be that the Bible scholar was also considered one of his students.
k This is the only instance in the Greek Testament where soson (‘save’ or ‘restore’ or ‘liberate’) does not include an object (what is being saved). It seems likely the omission is intentional, like they are stammering from panic.
l This phrase is a single word in Greek, oligopistoi, used as a form of address meaning ‘little-trusters’ or ‘you who barely trust.’
m The traditional ‘possessed by’ is not in the Greek, and the actual word would be directly something like ‘demonized.’ Some kind of torment is certainly at play here. The word diamonia can carry the meaning of an evil entity, but it can also be ‘a spirit of…’ as in a part of a person that causes their own suffering or even a ‘divinity’ or ‘god’ as in the Greek god of X that was a lesser god.
n “The Son of God” was a nickname for the emperor, a title taken on originally by Augustus Caesar, the son of Julius Caesar who was worshiped as divine, and was then used by each subsequent Caesar.