Jesus · c. AD 28
Chapter 26
Wind and Waves
He awoke and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” The wind ceased and there was a great calm.
For parents
This chapter tells of a man with an unclean spirit who lived among the tombs, crying out night and day and cutting himself with stones (Mark 5:2–5). When the demons go into a herd of pigs, the whole herd, about two thousand, rushes into the lake and drowns (Mark 5:11–13). It also tells, softly, of a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years (Mark 5:25–34), and of a girl of twelve who dies; Jesus takes her by the hand, her spirit comes back, and she gets up (Mark 5:35–43; Luke 8:49–56).
That same day, when evening came, saw the great crowds around him and gave the order to cross the lake. “Let’s go over to the other side of the lake,” he said to his .
Before they set off, a came to him. “Teacher,” he said, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
Jesus answered him, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the sky have nests, but the has nowhere to lay his head.”
Another of his disciples spoke up. “Lord,” he said, “allow me to go and bury my father first.”
But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”
So they left the crowd. Jesus got into the boat, and his disciples came with him. They took him along just as he was and set out across the water. Other small boats went with him too.
As they sailed, Jesus fell asleep. Then a great windstorm came down on the lake. The waves beat into the boat and covered it. The boat was already full, and they were taking on a dangerous amount of water. Jesus was at the back of the boat, asleep on the cushion.
They woke him up. “Teacher,” they said, “don’t you care that we are dying?” In Matthew they cry out, “Save us, Lord! We are dying!” and in Luke, “Master, Master, we are dying!”
He woke up and spoke sharply to the wind and to the raging water. “Peace! Be still!” he said to the sea. The wind and the waves stopped, and there was a great calm.
He asked them, “Why are you so afraid? How is it that you have no faith?” In Luke he asks them, “Where is your faith?”
Matthew tells it in the other order. There, Jesus first said to them, “Why are you fearful, you of little faith?” After that he got up and spoke sharply to the wind and the sea, and there was a great calm.
They were struck with fear and wonder, and they said to one another, “Who is this, then, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
They came to the other side of the lake, to the country of the , across from . Matthew calls it the country of the .
Jesus had only just stepped ashore when a man with an came from among the tombs to meet him. He was from the town, and demons had been in him for a long time. He wore no clothes, and he didn’t live in a house. His home was the tombs. Nobody could tie him up any more, not even with chains.
The spirit had often seized him. Again and again people had kept him under guard and bound him with chains and leg irons. But he had ripped the chains apart and broken the irons to bits, and the demon had driven him out into the desert. Nobody had the strength to tame him. All the time, night and day, he was out among the tombs and on the hills, crying out and cutting himself with stones.
Matthew tells of two people with demons who came out of the tombs to meet Jesus there. They were so fierce that nobody could get through that way.
When the man saw Jesus from far off, he ran to him and bowed down in front of him. He cried out in a loud voice, “What do I have to do with you, Jesus, you Son of the ? I beg you by God, don’t torment me!”
He said this because Jesus had been commanding the spirit, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”
In Matthew the two of them cried out, “What do we have to do with you, Jesus, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?”
“What is your name?” Jesus asked him.
“My name is ,” he said. “We are many.” Many demons had come into him.
He begged Jesus over and over not to send them away out of the country. In Luke they begged him not to order them into the .
A big herd of pigs was feeding out on the hillside. Matthew says it was far away from them. All the demons begged Jesus, “Send us into the pigs, so that we can go into them.” In Matthew they say, “If you drive us out, let us go away into the herd of pigs.”
At once Jesus gave them permission. In Matthew he tells them, “Go!” So the unclean spirits came out of the man and went into the pigs. Then the whole herd, some two thousand pigs, charged down the steep bank into the lake, and there they drowned.
Those who looked after the pigs saw it all, and they ran. They told about it in the town and out in the countryside. Matthew says they told everything, even what had happened to those who had the demons.
The people went out to see for themselves. When they reached Jesus, they found the man who had been held by the legion of demons. He was sitting at Jesus’ feet, wearing clothes, his mind sound and clear. And they were frightened.
The ones who had watched it all explained how the man with the demons had been healed, and they told about the pigs.
So they began begging Jesus to leave their part of the country. All the people of the Gadarenes’ countryside asked him to go away from them, because they were very much afraid. In Matthew the whole town turned out to meet Jesus. At the sight of him, they begged him to leave their land.
So Jesus got into the boat to go back. As he was getting in, the man the demons had left begged Jesus to let him come along.
But Jesus didn’t allow it. He sent him away and said, “Go to your house, to your friends, and tell them about the great things the Lord has done for you, and how he had mercy on you.”
The man went off and began to tell people all through the how Jesus had done great things for him, and everyone was full of wonder. Luke says he went through the whole town telling it.
Jesus crossed back over the lake in the boat. On the other side a great crowd came together around him there by the water. The people welcomed him, because they were all waiting for him.
A man named came up. He was one of the rulers of the . As soon as he caught sight of Jesus, he fell down at Jesus’ feet and kept begging him to come to his house. His only daughter was dying. She was about twelve. “My little daughter is close to death,” he told Jesus. “Please come and lay your hands on her, so she can be healed and live.”
In Matthew, a ruler came while Jesus was still speaking, and he worshiped him and said, “My daughter has just now died. But come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.”
Jesus got up and followed him, and so did his disciples. A great crowd went after him, pressing against him on every side.
In the crowd was a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years. Many doctors had put her through a lot. She had spent all the money she had on them, but none of them could heal her. She hadn’t gotten any better. She had only grown worse.
She had heard the things people said about Jesus. She came up from behind in the crowd and touched the fringe of his cloak. “If I just touch his clothes,” she had told herself, “I will be made well.”
At once the bleeding dried up. She felt it in her body: she was healed.
In that same moment Jesus felt in himself that power had gone out of him, and he turned around in the crowd. “Who touched my clothes?” he asked.
Everyone said they hadn’t touched him. Then and the disciples with him said, “Master, you can see the crowds pressing and pushing against you on every side, and you ask who touched you.”
But Jesus said, “Someone did touch me. I could tell that power had gone out of me.”
He looked around to see the woman who had done this.
When the woman saw that she couldn’t hide, she came forward, frightened and trembling. She knew what had been done to her. She fell down before him, and in front of all the people she told him the whole truth: why she had touched him, and how she was healed right away.
He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be cured of your disease.” In Luke, his words begin, “Daughter, cheer up.”
In Matthew, Jesus turned around and saw her, and said, “Daughter, cheer up! Your faith has made you well.” And Matthew says the woman was made well from that moment.
While Jesus was still speaking, people came from the synagogue ruler’s house. “Your daughter is dead,” they told Jairus. “Why bother the Teacher any more?” Luke tells of one messenger, who said, “Your daughter is dead. Don’t trouble the Teacher.”
Jesus heard what they said. At once he told the synagogue ruler, “Don’t be afraid. Only believe, and she will be healed.”
He let no one follow him except Peter, , and the brother of James.
When they came to the ruler’s house, Jesus saw an uproar there, with weeping and loud wailing. They were all in tears, mourning her. Matthew tells of flute players there too, and a noisy, unruly crowd.
Going inside, he spoke to them. “Why are you making such an uproar and crying? The child isn’t dead. She’s asleep.” In Matthew he begins, “Make room,” and in Luke, “Don’t weep.”
They laughed at him. They knew she was dead.
But he put them all outside. Only Peter, John and James, and the girl’s father and mother, were allowed in with him. He went in with them to where the child was lying.
Taking the child’s hand, he said to her, “Talitha cumi!” which means “Girl, I tell you, get up!”
Her spirit came back, and at once the girl got up and walked. She was twelve years old. Her parents and the others were struck with amazement.
He gave orders for her to have something to eat. And he warned them strictly not to let anyone find out about this. They were to tell no one what had been done.
Matthew says the news of it spread through all that land.
When Jesus left that place, two blind men came after him, shouting, “Have mercy on us, son of !”
When he had gone into the house, the blind men came to him. “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” Jesus asked them.
“Yes, Lord,” they said.
He touched their eyes and said, “Let it be done to you in keeping with your faith.” Then their eyes were opened.
Jesus gave them a strict order. “Make sure no one knows about this.”
But they went off and made him famous all through that land.
As they were going out, a man who could not speak was brought to Jesus. A demon had hold of him. When the demon was driven out of him, the man spoke. The crowds were astonished. “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel!” they said.
But the said, “He drives out demons with the power of the prince of the demons.”