New Testament in a Year
18 When Jesus noticed how large the crowd was growing, he instructed his disciples to get ready to cross to the other side of the lake.
19 Just then[a] one of the Jewish religious teachers said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you no matter where you go!”
20 But Jesus said, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but I, the Messiah,[b] have no home of my own—no place to lay my head.”
21 Another of his disciples said, “Sir, when my father is dead, then I will follow you.”[c]
22 But Jesus told him,
23 Then he got into a boat and started across the lake with his disciples. 24 Suddenly a terrible storm came up, with waves higher than the boat. But Jesus was asleep.
25 The disciples went to him and wakened him, shouting, “Lord, save us! We’re sinking!”
26 But Jesus answered, “O you men of little faith! Why are you so frightened?” Then he stood up and rebuked the wind and waves, and the storm subsided and all was calm. 27 The disciples just sat there, awed! “Who is this,” they asked themselves, “that even the winds and the sea obey him?”
28 When they arrived on the other side of the lake, in the country of the Gadarenes, two men with demons in them met him. They lived in a cemetery and were so dangerous that no one could go through that area.
29 They began screaming at him, “What do you want with us, O Son of God? You have no right to torment us yet.”[e]
30 A herd of pigs was feeding in the distance, 31 so the demons begged, “If you cast us out, send us into that herd of pigs.”
32 “All right,” Jesus told them. “Begone.”
And they came out of the men and entered the pigs, and the whole herd rushed over a cliff and drowned in the water below. 33 The herdsmen fled to the nearest city with the story of what had happened, 34 and the entire population came rushing out to see Jesus and begged him to go away and leave them alone.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.