The Living Bible (312 page)
Authors: Inc. Tyndale House Publishers
Tags: #BIBLES / Other Translations / Text
When they arrived at the other side of the lake, a demon-possessed man ran out from a graveyard, just as Jesus was climbing from the boat.
3-4
This man lived among the gravestones and had such strength that whenever he was put into handcuffs and shackles—as he often was—he snapped the handcuffs from his wrists and smashed the shackles and walked away. No one was strong enough to control him.
5
All day long and through the night he would wander among the tombs and in the wild hills, screaming and cutting himself with sharp pieces of stone.
6
When Jesus was still far out on the water, the man had seen him and had run to meet him, and fell down before him.
7-8
Then Jesus spoke to the demon within the man and said,
“Come out, you evil spirit.”
It gave a terrible scream, shrieking, “What are you going to do to me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? For God’s sake, don’t torture me!”
9
“What is your name?”
Jesus asked, and the demon replied, “Legion, for there are many of us here within this man.”
10
Then the demons begged him again and again not to send them to some distant land.
11
Now as it happened there was a huge herd of hogs rooting around on the hill above the lake.
12
“Send us into those hogs,” the demons begged.
13
And Jesus gave them permission. Then the evil spirits came out of the man and entered the hogs, and the entire herd plunged down the steep hillside into the lake and drowned.
14
The herdsmen fled to the nearby towns and countryside, spreading the news as they ran. Everyone rushed out to see for themselves.
15
And a large crowd soon gathered where Jesus was; but as they saw the man sitting there, fully clothed and perfectly sane, they were frightened.
16
Those who saw what happened were telling everyone about it,
17
and the crowd began pleading with Jesus to go away and leave them alone!
18
So he got back into the boat. The man who had been possessed by the demons begged Jesus to let him go along.
19
But Jesus said no.
“Go home to your friends,”
he told him,
“and tell them what wonderful things God has done for you; and how merciful he has been.”
20
So the man started off to visit the Ten Towns
*
of that region and began to tell everyone about the great things Jesus had done for him; and they were awestruck by his story.
21
When Jesus had gone across by boat to the other side of the lake, a vast crowd gathered around him on the shore.
22
The leader of the local synagogue, whose name was Jairus, came and fell down before him,
23
pleading with him to heal his little daughter.
“She is at the point of death,” he said in desperation. “Please come and place your hands on her and make her live.”
24
Jesus went with him, and the crowd thronged behind.
25
In the crowd was a woman who had been sick for twelve years with a hemorrhage.
26
She had suffered much from many doctors through the years and had become poor from paying them, and was no better but, in fact, was worse.
27
She had heard all about the wonderful miracles Jesus did, and that is why she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his clothes.
28
For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his clothing, I will be healed.”
29
And sure enough, as soon as she had touched him, the bleeding stopped and she knew she was well!
30
Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked,
“Who touched my clothes?”
31
His disciples said to him, “All this crowd pressing around you, and you ask who touched you?”
32
But he kept on looking around to see who it was who had done it.
33
Then the frightened woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and told him what she had done.
34
And he said to her,
“Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, healed of your disease.”
35
While he was still talking to her, messengers arrived from Jairus’s home with the news that it was too late—his daughter was dead and there was no point in Jesus’ coming now.
36
But Jesus ignored their comments and said to Jairus,
“Don’t be afraid. Just trust me.”
37
Then Jesus halted the crowd and wouldn’t let anyone go on with him to Jairus’s home except Peter and James and John.
38
When they arrived, Jesus saw that all was in great confusion, with unrestrained weeping and wailing.
39
He went inside and spoke to the people.
“Why all this weeping and commotion?”
he asked.
“The child isn’t dead; she is only asleep!”
40
They laughed at him in bitter derision, but he told them all to leave, and taking the little girl’s father and mother and his three disciples, he went into the room where she was lying.
41-42
Taking her by the hand he said to her,
“Get up, little girl!”
(She was twelve years old.) And she jumped up and walked around! Her parents just couldn’t get over it.
43
Jesus instructed them very earnestly not to tell what had happened and told them to give her something to eat.
Soon afterwards he left that section of the country and returned with his disciples to Nazareth, his hometown.
2-3
The next Sabbath he went to the synagogue to teach, and the people were astonished at his wisdom and his miracles because he was just a local man like themselves.
“He’s no better than we are,” they said. “He’s just a carpenter, Mary’s boy, and a brother of James and Joseph, Judas and Simon. And his sisters live right here among us.” And they were offended!
4
Then Jesus told them,
“A prophet is honored everywhere except in his hometown and among his relatives and by his own family.”
5
And because of their unbelief he couldn’t do any mighty miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them.
6
And he could hardly accept the fact that they wouldn’t believe in him.
Then he went out among the villages, teaching.
7
And he called his twelve disciples together and sent them out two by two, with power to cast out demons.
8-9
He told them to take nothing with them except their walking sticks—no food, no knapsack, no money, not even an extra pair of shoes or a change of clothes.
10
“Stay at one home in each village—don’t shift around from house to house while you are there,”
he said.
11
“And whenever a village won’t accept you or listen to you, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave; it is a sign that you have abandoned it to its fate.”
12
So the disciples went out, telling everyone they met to turn from sin.
13
And they cast out many demons and healed many sick people, anointing them with olive oil.
14
King Herod soon heard about Jesus, for his miracles were talked about everywhere. The king thought Jesus was John the Baptist come back to life again. So the people were saying, “No wonder he can do such miracles.”
15
Others thought Jesus was Elijah the ancient prophet, now returned to life again; still others claimed he was a new prophet like the great ones of the past.
16
“No,” Herod said, “it is John, the man I beheaded. He has come back from the dead.”
17-18
For Herod had sent soldiers to arrest and imprison John because he kept saying it was wrong for the king to marry Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife.
19
Herodias wanted John killed in revenge, but without Herod’s approval she was powerless.
20
And Herod respected John, knowing that he was a good and holy man, and so he kept him under his protection. Herod was disturbed whenever he talked with John, but even so he liked to listen to him.
21
Herodias’s chance finally came. It was Herod’s birthday and he gave a stag party for his palace aides, army officers, and the leading citizens of Galilee.
22-23
Then Herodias’s daughter came in and danced before them and greatly pleased them all.
“Ask me for anything you like,” the king vowed, “even half of my kingdom, and I will give it to you!”
24
She went out and consulted her mother, who told her, “Ask for John the Baptist’s head!”
25
So she hurried back to the king and told him, “I want the head of John the Baptist—right now—on a tray!”
26
Then the king was sorry, but he was embarrassed to break his oath in front of his guests.
27
So he sent one of his bodyguards to the prison to cut off John’s head and bring it to him. The soldier killed John in the prison,
28
and brought back his head on a tray, and gave it to the girl and she took it to her mother.
29
When John’s disciples heard what had happened, they came for his body and buried it in a tomb.
30
The apostles now returned to Jesus from their tour and told him all they had done and what they had said to the people they visited.
31
Then Jesus suggested,
“Let’s get away from the crowds for a while and rest.”
For so many people were coming and going that they scarcely had time to eat.
32
So they left by boat for a quieter spot.
33
But many people saw them leaving and ran on ahead along the shore and met them as they landed.
34
So the usual vast crowd was there as he stepped from the boat; and he had pity on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he taught them many things they needed to know.
35-36
Late in the afternoon his disciples came to him and said, “Tell the people to go away to the nearby villages and farms and buy themselves some food, for there is nothing to eat here in this desolate spot, and it is getting late.”
37
But Jesus said,
“
You
feed them.”
“With what?” they asked. “It would take a fortune
*
to buy food for all this crowd!”
38
“How much food do we have?”
he asked.
“Go and find out.”
They came back to report that there were five loaves of bread and two fish.
39-40
Then Jesus told the crowd to sit down, and soon colorful groups of fifty or a hundred each were sitting on the green grass.
41
He took the five loaves and two fish and looking up to heaven, gave thanks for the food. Breaking the loaves into pieces, he gave some of the bread and fish to each disciple to place before the people.
42
And the crowd ate until they could hold no more!
43-44
There were about 5,000 men there for that meal, and afterwards twelve basketfuls of scraps were picked up off the grass!
45
Immediately after this Jesus instructed his disciples to get back into the boat and strike out across the lake to Bethsaida, where he would join them later. He himself would stay and tell the crowds good-bye and get them started home.
46
Afterwards he went up into the hills to pray.
47
During the night, as the disciples in their boat were out in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land,
48
he saw that they were in serious trouble, rowing hard and struggling against the wind and waves.
About three o’clock in the morning he walked out to them on the water. He started past them,
49
but when they saw something walking along beside them, they screamed in terror, thinking it was a ghost,
50
for they all saw him.
But he spoke to them at once.
“It’s all right,”
he said.
“It is I! Don’t be afraid.”
51
Then he climbed into the boat and the wind stopped!
They just sat there, unable to take it in!
52
For they still didn’t realize who he was, even after the miracle the evening before! For they didn’t want to believe!
*
53
When they arrived at Gennesaret on the other side of the lake, they moored the boat
54
and climbed out.
The people standing around there recognized him at once,
55
and ran throughout the whole area to spread the news of his arrival, and began carrying sick folks to him on mats and stretchers.
56
Wherever he went—in villages and cities, and out on the farms—they laid the sick in the market plazas and streets, and begged him to let them at least touch the fringes of his clothes; and as many as touched him were healed.