New Testament in a Year

²⁶ When they get to the other side of the lake, in the Gerasene country opposite Galilee, ²⁷ a man from the city is waiting for Jesus when He steps out of the boat. The man is full of demonic spirits. He’s been running around for a long time stark naked, and he’s homeless, sleeping among the dead in a cemetery. ^28-29 This man has on many occasions been tied up and chained and kept under guard, but each time he has broken free and the demonic power has driven him back into remote places away from human contact. Jesus commands the demonic force to leave him. The man looks at Jesus and starts screaming. He falls down in front of Jesus.

He says this because an army of demons is inside of him. ³¹ The demons start begging Jesus not to send them into the bottomless pit. ³² They plead instead to enter into a herd of pigs feeding on a steep hillside near the shore. Jesus gives them permission to do so. ³³ Suddenly the man is liberated from the demons, but the pigs—they stampede, squealing down the hill and into the lake where they drown themselves.

³⁴ The pig owners see all this. They run back to their town and tell everyone in the region about it. ³⁵ Soon a crowd rushes from the town to see what’s going on out by the lake. There they find Jesus seated to teach with the newly liberated man sitting at His feet learning in the posture of a disciple. This former madman is now properly dressed and completely sane. This frightens the people. ³⁶ The pig owners tell them the whole story—the healing, the pigs’ mass suicide, everything.

³⁷ The people are scared to death, and they don’t want this scary abnormality happening in their territory. They ask Jesus to leave immediately. Jesus doesn’t argue. He prepares to leave, ³⁸ but before they embark, the newly liberated man begs to come along and join the band of disciples.

The man does so. In fact, he tells everyone in the whole city how much Jesus did for him that day on the shore.

⁴⁰ When Jesus and His disciples crossed the lake, another crowd was waiting to welcome Him. ⁴¹ A man made his way through the crowd. His name was Jairus, and he was a synagogue official. Like the man on the other side of the lake, this dignified man also fell at Jesus’ feet, begging Jesus to visit his home ⁴² where his only daughter, a girl of 12, lay dying. Jesus set out with Jairus. The crowd came along, too, pressing hard against Him.

⁴³ In the crowd was a woman. She had suffered from an incurable menstrual disorder for 12 years [and had spent her livelihood on doctors with no effect].^[a] It had kept her miserable and ritually unclean, unable to participate fully in Jewish life. ⁴⁴ She followed Jesus, until she could reach Him. She touched the fringe of the robe Jesus wore, and at that moment the bleeding stopped.

⁴⁷ The woman now realized her secret was going to come out sooner or later, so she stepped out of the crowd, shaking with fear, and she fell down in front of Jesus. Then she told her story in front of everyone—why she touched Him, what happened as a result.

⁴⁹ Right at that instant, one of Jairus’s household servants arrived.

^51-52 As they approached the house, the whole neighborhood was full of the sound of mourning—weeping, wailing, loud crying. Jesus told everyone to stay outside—everyone except Peter, John, James, and, of course, the girl’s father and mother.

⁵³ They knew for certain that she was dead, so their bitter tears now mixed with mocking laughter.

⁵⁴ Meanwhile, inside, Jesus took the girl’s hand.

⁵⁵ She started breathing again, and she sat right up.

⁵⁶ Her parents were amazed, but Jesus sternly told them to keep what had happened a secret.