The Life of Jesus

So they came and roused him, saying, "Sir! Help! We're about to die!"

He said to them, "Why are you afraid? So little trust you have!" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and there was a dead calm.

The men were astounded. They asked, "What kind of man is this, that even the winds and sea obey him?"

When Yeshua arrived at the other side of the lake, in the Gadarenes' territory, there came out of the burial caves two men controlled by demons, so violent that no one dared travel on that road.

They screamed, "What do you want with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?"

Now some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding.

The demons begged him, "If you are going to drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs."

"All right, go!" he told them. So they came out and went into the pigs, whereupon the entire herd rushed down the hillside into the lake and drowned.

The swineherds fled, went off to the town and told the whole story, including what had happened to the demonized men.

At this, the whole town came out to meet Yeshua. When they saw him, they begged him to leave their district.

So he stepped into a boat, crossed the lake again and came to his own town.

Some people brought him a paralyzed man lying on a mattress. When Yeshua saw their trust, he said to the paralyzed man, "Courage, son! Your sins are forgiven."

On seeing this, some of the Torah-teachers said among themselves, "This man is blaspheming!"

Yeshua, knowing what they were thinking, said, "Why are you entertaining evil thoughts in your hearts?

Tell me, which is easier to say -- `Your sins are forgiven' or `Get up and walk'?

But look! I will prove to you that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins." He then said to the paralyzed man, "Get up, pick up your mattress, and go home!"

And the man got up and went home.

When the crowds saw this, they were awestruck and said a b'rakhah to God the Giver of such authority to human beings.

As Yeshua passed on from there he spotted a tax-collector named Mattityahu sitting in his collection booth. He said to him, "Follow me!" and he got up and followed him.

WhileYeshua was in the house eating, many tax-collectors and sinners came and joined him and his talmidim at the meal.

When the P'rushim saw this, they said to his talmidim, "Why does your rabbi eat with tax-collectors and sinners?"

But Yeshua heard the question and answered, "The ones who need a doctor aren't the healthy but the sick.

As for you, go and learn what this means: `I want compassion rather than animal-sacrifices.' For I didn't come to call the `righteous,' but sinners!"

Next, Yochanan's talmidim came to him and asked, "Why is it that we and the P'rushim fast frequently, but your talmidim don't fast at all?"

Yeshua said to them, "Can wedding guests mourn while the bridegroom is still with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them; then they will fast.