Jesus Cures a Man with a Skin Disease^(A)

⁴⁰ Then a man with a serious skin disease came to him. The man fell to his knees and begged Yeshua, “If you’re willing, you can make me clean.”^[a]

⁴¹ Yeshua felt sorry for him, reached out, touched him, and said, “I’m willing. So be clean!”

⁴² Immediately, his skin disease went away, and he was clean.

⁴³ Yeshua sent him away at once and warned him, ⁴⁴ “Don’t tell anyone about this! Instead, show yourself to the priest. Then offer the sacrifices which Moses commanded as proof to people that you are clean.”

⁴⁵ When the man left, he began to talk freely. He spread his story so widely that Yeshua could no longer enter any city openly. Instead, he stayed in places where he could be alone. But people still kept coming to him from everywhere.

Jesus Cures a Demon-Possessed Man^(A)

5 They arrived in the territory of the Gerasenes on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. ² As Yeshua stepped out of the boat, a man came out of the tombs and met him. The man was controlled by an evil spirit ³ and lived among the tombs. No one could restrain him any longer, not even with a chain. ⁴ He had often been chained hand and foot. However, he snapped the chains off his hands and broke the chains from his feet. No one could control him. ⁵ Night and day he was among the tombs and on the mountainsides screaming and cutting himself with stones.

⁶ The man saw Yeshua at a distance. So he ran to Yeshua, bowed down in front of him, ⁷ and shouted, “Why are you bothering me now, Yeshua, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won’t torture me.” ⁸ He shouted this because Yeshua said, “You evil spirit, come out of the man.”

⁹ Yeshua asked him, “What is your name?”

He told Yeshua, “My name is Legion [Six Thousand], because there are many of us.” ¹⁰ He begged Yeshua not to send them out of the territory.

¹¹ A large herd of pigs was feeding on a mountainside nearby. ¹² The demons begged him, “Send us into the pigs! Let us enter them!”

¹³ Yeshua let them do this. The evil spirits came out of the man and went into the pigs. The herd of about two thousand pigs rushed down the cliff into the sea and drowned.

¹⁴ Those who took care of the pigs ran away. In the city and countryside they reported everything that had happened. So the people came to see what had happened. ¹⁵ They came to Yeshua and saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons. The man was sitting there dressed and in his right mind. The people were frightened. ¹⁶ Those who saw this told what had happened to the demon-possessed man and the pigs. ¹⁷ Then the people began to beg Yeshua to leave their territory.

¹⁸ As Yeshua stepped into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged him, “Let me stay with you.” ¹⁹ But Yeshua would not allow it. Instead, he told the man, “Go home to your family, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how merciful he has been to you.”

²⁰ So the man left. He began to tell how much Yeshua had done for him in the Ten Cities.^[a] Everyone was amazed.

Jairus’ Daughter and a Woman with Chronic Bleeding^(B)

²¹ Yeshua again crossed to the other side of the Sea of Galilee in a boat. A large crowd gathered around him by the seashore.

²² A synagogue leader named Jairus also arrived. When he saw Yeshua, he quickly bowed down in front of him. ²³ He begged Yeshua, “My little daughter is dying. Come, lay your hands on her so that she may get well and live.”

²⁴ Yeshua went with the man. A huge crowd followed Yeshua and pressed him on every side.

²⁵ In the crowd was a woman who had been suffering from chronic bleeding for twelve years. ²⁶ Although she had been under the care of many doctors and had spent all her money, she had not been helped at all. Actually, she had become worse. ²⁷ Since she had heard about Yeshua, she came from behind in the crowd and touched his clothes. ²⁸ She said, “If I can just touch his clothes, I’ll get well.” ²⁹ Her bleeding stopped immediately. She felt cured from her illness.

³⁰ At that moment Yeshua felt power had gone out of him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”

³¹ His disciples said to him, “How can you ask, ‘Who touched me,’ when you see the crowd pressing you on all sides?”

³² But he kept looking around to see the woman who had done this. ³³ The woman trembled with fear. She knew what had happened to her. So she quickly bowed in front of him and told him the whole truth.

³⁴ Yeshua told her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace! Be cured from your illness.”

³⁵ While Yeshua was still speaking to her, some people came from the synagogue leader’s home. They told the synagogue leader, “Your daughter has died. Why bother the teacher anymore?”

³⁶ When Yeshua overheard what they said, he told the synagogue leader, “Don’t be afraid! Just believe.”

³⁷ Yeshua allowed no one to go with him except Peter and the two brothers James and John. ³⁸ When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Yeshua saw a noisy crowd there. People were crying and sobbing loudly. ³⁹ When he came into the house, he asked them, “Why are you making so much noise and crying? The child isn’t dead. She’s just sleeping.”

⁴⁰ They laughed at him. So he made all of them go outside. Then he took the child’s father, mother, and his three disciples and went to the child. ⁴¹ Yeshua took the child’s hand and said to her, “Talitha, koum!” which means, “Little girl, I’m telling you to get up!”

⁴² The girl got up at once and started to walk. (She was twelve years old.) They were astonished.

⁴³ Yeshua ordered them not to let anyone know about this. He also told them to give the little girl something to eat.

²² After the days required by Moses’ Teachings to make a mother clean^[a] had passed, Joseph and Mary went to Jerusalem. They took Yeshua to present him to the Lord. ²³ They did exactly what was written in the Lord’s Teachings: “Every firstborn boy is to be set apart as holy to the Lord.” ²⁴ They also offered a sacrifice as required by the Lord’s Teachings: “a pair of mourning doves or two young pigeons.”

Jesus Cures a Man with a Skin Disease^(A)

¹² One day Yeshua was in a city where there was a man covered with a serious skin disease. When the man saw Yeshua, he bowed with his face to the ground. He begged Yeshua, “Sir, if you want to, you can make me clean.”^[a]

¹³ Yeshua reached out, touched him, and said, “I want to. So be clean!” Immediately, his skin disease went away.

¹⁴ Yeshua ordered him, “Don’t tell anyone. Instead, show yourself to the priest. Then offer the sacrifice as Moses commanded as proof to people that you are clean.”

¹⁵ The news about Yeshua spread even more. Large crowds gathered to hear him and have their diseases cured. ¹⁶ But he would go away to places where he could be alone for prayer.

John Sends Two Disciples^(A)

¹⁸ John’s disciples told him about all these things. Then John called two of his disciples ¹⁹ and sent them to ask the Lord, “Are you the one who is coming, or should we look for someone else?”

²⁰ The men came to Yeshua and said, “John the Baptizer sent us to ask you, ‘Are you the one who is coming, or should we look for someone else?’”

²¹ At that time Yeshua was curing many people who had diseases, sicknesses, and evil spirits. Also, he was giving back sight to many who were blind.

²² Yeshua answered John’s disciples, “Go back, and tell John what you have seen and heard: Blind people see again, lame people are walking, those with skin diseases are made clean,^[a] deaf people hear again, dead people are brought back to life, and poor people hear the Good News. ²³ Whoever doesn’t lose his faith in me is indeed blessed.”

No Longer Slaves to Sin, but God’s Servants

6 What should we say then? Should we continue to sin so that God’s kindness^[a] will increase? ² That’s unthinkable! As far as sin is concerned, we have died. So how can we still live under sin’s influence?

³ Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Yeshua were baptized into his death? ⁴ When we were baptized into his death, we were placed into the tomb with him. As Christ was brought back from death to life by the glorious power of the Father, so we, too, should live a new kind of life. ⁵ If we’ve become united with him in a death like his, certainly we will also be united with him when we come back to life as he did. ⁶ We know that the person we used to be was crucified with him to put an end to sin in our bodies. Because of this we are no longer slaves to sin. ⁷ The person who has died has been freed from sin.

⁸ If we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹ We know that Christ, who was brought back to life, will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. ¹⁰ When he died, he died once and for all to sin’s power. But now he lives, and he lives for God. ¹¹ So consider yourselves dead to sin’s power but living for God in the power Christ Yeshua gives you.

¹² Therefore, never let sin rule your physical body so that you obey its desires. ¹³ Never offer any part of your body to sin’s power. No part of your body should ever be used to do any ungodly thing. Instead, offer yourselves to God as people who have come back from death and are now alive. Offer all the parts of your body to God. Use them to do everything that God approves of. ¹⁴ Certainly, sin shouldn’t have power over you because you’re not controlled by God’s laws, but by God’s favor.^[b]

¹⁵ Then what is the implication? Should we sin because we are not controlled by God’s laws but by God’s favor? That’s unthinkable! ¹⁶ Don’t you know that if you offer to be someone’s slave, you must obey that master? Either your master is sin, or your master is obedience. Letting sin be your master leads to death. Letting obedience be your master leads to God’s approval. ¹⁷ You were slaves to sin. But I thank God that you have become wholeheartedly obedient to the teachings which you were given. ¹⁸ Freed from sin, you were made slaves who do what God approves of.

¹⁹ I’m speaking in a human way because of the weakness of your corrupt nature. Clearly, you once offered all the parts of your body as slaves to sexual perversion and disobedience. This led you to live disobedient lives. Now, in the same way, offer all the parts of your body as slaves that do what God approves of. This leads you to live holy lives. ²⁰ When you were slaves to sin, you were free from doing what God approves of.

²¹ What did you gain by doing those things? You’re ashamed of what you used to do because it ended in death. ²² Now you have been freed from sin and have become God’s slaves. This results in a holy life and, finally, in everlasting life. ²³ The payment for sin is death, but the gift that God freely gives is everlasting life found in Christ Yeshua our Lord.