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Matthew 8

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When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him.

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And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

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And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

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And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.

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And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him,

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And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.

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And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.

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The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.

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For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.

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When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.

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And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.

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But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

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And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.

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And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever.

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And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them.

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When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick:

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That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.

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Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, he gave commandment to depart unto the other side.

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And a certain scribe came, and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.

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And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.

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And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.

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But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.

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And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him.

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And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep.

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And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish.

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And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.

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But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!

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And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.

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And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?

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And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding.

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So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine.

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And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.

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And they that kept them fled, and went their ways into the city, and told every thing, and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils.

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And, behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus: and when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts.

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Matthew 8

After the Sermon, Jesus descends the mountain and the narrative becomes a series of ten miracles that demonstrate the kingdom's arrival in action. The leper (I am willing; be clean), the centurion's servant (healed by a word from a distance, with the centurion's faith praised as greater than any in Israel), and Peter's mother-in-law establish the pattern: Jesus heals the ritually excluded, the Gentile, and the household with equal authority. The evening summary — he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick — is interpreted through Isaiah 53:4 (he took up our infirmities and bore our diseases), placing the healings within the Servant's substitutionary work. Two would-be followers receive sharp responses: the scribe who wants to follow is warned of the Son of Man's homelessness; the disciple who wants to bury his father first is told let the dead bury their own dead. The stilling of the storm on the Galilean sea terrifies the disciples — what kind of man is this, that even the winds and sea obey him? — and the Gadarene demoniacs identify Jesus as the Son of God before the demons are cast into the pigs and the townspeople ask Jesus to leave.

Matthew 8:1

When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. The descent from the mountain after the Sermon is the transition from words to works: chapters 8–9 demonstrate the authority in action that the crowds sensed at the end of chapter 7. The great crowds who followed from the mountain are the crowds who have been astonished and who now witness the authority expressed not in teaching but in healing, exorcism, and nature-control. The Sermon announced the kingdom; chapters 8–9 demonstrate it. John 10:25 says the works Jesus does in the Father's name bear witness about him — the works of power that follow the Sermon are the validation of the words that preceded them.

Matthew 8:2

And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. The first healing after the Sermon is the healing of a leper — a person ritually unclean by the law's definition, socially isolated, excluded from the community of worship and daily life. The leper's approach is theologically precise: Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. He affirms both Jesus' power (you can) and his sovereign will (if you will) without presuming on either. The question is not whether Jesus is capable but whether he will choose to exercise that capability for a person whom the law has excluded. Leviticus 13–14 defined the leper's status and the process for potential restoration; the leper is asking Jesus to initiate what only a priest could officially declare complete.

Matthew 8:3

And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, I will; be clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. The touch is the scandalous act: Jesus touches the leper, which by the law would make Jesus ritually impure. Instead, the cleanness flows from Jesus to the leper — the direction of the contagion is reversed. The leper becomes clean rather than Jesus becoming unclean. This is the pattern of Jesus' entire ministry: he enters the space of the defiled and the excluded and his holiness overwhelms the defilement rather than being contaminated by it. The immediately communicates the completeness and speed of the healing. I will — Jesus affirms what the leper asked: not only can he, but he will. His will aligns with the leper's desire for restoration.

Matthew 8:4

And Jesus said to him, See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them. The silence command and the Mosaic compliance command belong together: the healing is not to be a public spectacle but a private sign. Showing himself to the priest and offering the Leviticus 14 gift is the proper completion of the restoration process within the covenant law — Jesus is not replacing the Torah but fulfilling it, as he said in Matthew 5:17. The for a proof to them (the priests) is the witness that the kingdom has arrived: the priests who examine the healed leper are being confronted with evidence that something unprecedented has occurred.

Matthew 8:5

When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him. The second healing involves a Roman centurion — a Gentile military officer with one hundred soldiers under his command. The centurion's approach to Jesus is remarkable both socially (a Roman officer petitioning a Jewish teacher) and spiritually (a representative of the occupying power addressing the one who will announce that the kingdoms of the world belong to God). Luke 7:1–10 provides the fuller version of this story, including the delegation of Jewish elders who vouch for the centurion. Matthew's compressed version focuses on the centurion's astonishing faith.

Matthew 8:6

Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly. The centurion's petition is for his servant (pais, which can mean child, boy, or servant) — he is advocating for someone dependent on him. The suffering that the centurion describes is acute; the concern is genuine. A Roman military officer concerned about a servant's welfare is already unusual; his willingness to seek help from a Jewish teacher is more so. The lord address and the straightforward description of the need communicate a directness and a trust that Jesus will explicitly commend as exceeding what he has found in Israel.

Matthew 8:7

And he said to him, I will come and heal him. Jesus' immediate offer to come and heal is remarkable: a Jewish teacher proposing to enter the home of a Gentile (which would create ritual impurity) to heal a Gentile's servant. Some interpreters read this as a question — will I come and heal him? — expressing surprise at the request. Either way, the centurion's response in verse 8 redirects the offer, and Jesus' eventual word of healing is delivered at a distance.

Matthew 8:8

But the centurion replied, Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. The centurion's response is the theological climax of the encounter: I am not worthy to have you under my roof, but only say the word. The centurion recognizes both his own unworthiness and Jesus' authority — he does not need Jesus' physical presence because he believes that Jesus' word is sufficient. This is the faith that Jesus will declare unparalleled in Israel: the recognition that the word of Jesus carries the full authority of the one who speaks it, regardless of distance or the absence of physical contact.

Matthew 8:9

For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, Go, and he goes, and to another, Come, and he comes, and to my servant, Do this, and he does it. The centurion's self-understanding as a man under authority is the basis for his understanding of Jesus' authority: command-authority delegated from a higher command produces certain obedience from those below. The centurion knows that effective power flows downward from delegated authority, not upward from the ranks. He perceives that Jesus' authority over disease and demons is the authority of one who operates at the command of a higher power — and that power will produce the same certain result in the servant's body as the centurion's command produces in his soldiers.

Matthew 8:10

When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. Jesus marvels — one of only two places in the Gospels where Jesus is said to marvel, the other being at the unbelief in Nazareth (Mark 6:6). The centurion's faith exceeds anything Jesus has encountered in Israel: the Gentile soldier has grasped the nature of Jesus' authority more accurately than those who have been living with the scriptures and the promises. This is the pattern Matthew has been building toward since the Magi: the Gentiles who seek find, while those who should be most prepared are sometimes most resistant.

Matthew 8:11

I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. The announcement that follows the centurion's faith is eschatological: many from east and west — Gentiles from every direction — will share the covenant table with the patriarchs in the kingdom of heaven. Isaiah 49:12 promises that the scattered of Israel will come from north, south, east, and west; Luke 13:29 expands this to Gentiles coming from every direction to recline at the kingdom table. The centurion's faith is the first fruit of what will become the great ingathering of the nations — the fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise that all nations would be blessed through Abraham's seed.

Matthew 8:12

While the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The sons of the kingdom — those with the covenant heritage, the birthright of Abraham — who reject the king will find themselves excluded from the table where they expected to recline. The outer darkness and the weeping and gnashing of teeth are Matthew's consistent imagery for the condition of exclusion from the kingdom's presence. Romans 9:6–8 says not all Israel is Israel — descent from the patriarchs does not guarantee the kingdom's inheritance. The centurion's faith places him at the patriarchal table; the covenant heritage that produces presumption without faith places its holders outside.

Matthew 8:13

And to the centurion Jesus said, Go; let it be done for you as you have believed. And the servant was healed at that very moment. The healing that validates the faith: let it be done as you have believed. The distance healing at the word of Jesus without physical contact is the fulfillment of the centurion's theology — the word alone is sufficient. John 4:46–54 records a similar healing at a distance, and Jesus tells the official your son will live; the official believed the word. The centurion's faith and the official's faith are both responses to the authority of Jesus' word that produce outcomes consistent with what was believed.

Matthew 8:14

And when Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. Peter's house in Capernaum is the domestic base of the ministry (Matthew 4:13 locates Jesus in Capernaum), and the healing of Peter's mother-in-law is the intimate application of the healing authority after the public demonstrations with the leper and the centurion's servant. The fever that afflicted Peter's mother-in-law was serious — fevers were a major cause of death in the ancient world. Luke 4:38 records that Peter's father-in-law asked Jesus about her.

Matthew 8:15

He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him. The touch of Jesus' hand — the same hand that touched the leper in verse 3 — produces the immediate healing that makes service possible. She rose and began to serve: the restored person immediately engages in the activity that the restoration enables. The service she offers is practical hospitality — the Greek diakoneo, the same word used for the service of the angels in Matthew 4:11. The pattern of healing enabling service anticipates the whole of the disciples' calling: those who are healed by Jesus serve Jesus and the community he is building.

Matthew 8:16

That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. The healing ministry extends into the evening — the time when the leper's uncleanness would have prohibited contact during the day has passed, and the crowds bring the demon-oppressed and the sick in large numbers. He cast out the spirits with a word — the same word-authority that healed the centurion's servant at a distance. All who were sick — the comprehensiveness of the healing is Matthew's consistent demonstration that the kingdom's restoration is unlimited in scope.

Matthew 8:17

This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: He took our illnesses and bore our diseases. The citation of Isaiah 53:4 applies the suffering servant's bearing of illness and disease to Jesus' healing ministry. The original Isaiah text is about the servant bearing the people's sin and suffering; Matthew applies it to the physical healings. The connection is not incidental: Jesus' healing ministry is the firstfruits of the full salvation that will include the bearing of sin at the cross. The same servant who bore our sins (1 Peter 2:24) bore our diseases in his healing ministry — the cross and the healings are aspects of the same redemptive mission.

Matthew 8:18

Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. The departure across the Sea of Galilee is not retreat from the crowds but movement toward the Gentile territories on the other side. The disciples encounter storms on the way; Jesus encounters demoniacs on the other shore. The crossing that the disciples barely survive in the storm is the crossing that the possessed men barely survive in their isolation. Jesus moves toward both the disciples' fear and the demoniacs' desperation.

Matthew 8:19

And a scribe came up and said to him, Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go. The two would-be disciples who present themselves on the way to the boat represent two forms of inadequately counted discipleship. The scribe who offers to follow wherever Jesus goes has not counted the cost — Jesus' response in verse 20 is about homelessness. Luke 9:57–62 records the fuller version of the exchange. The enthusiasm is genuine but untested: following Jesus wherever he goes means following him to the other shore in the storm, following him to the Gentile territories, following him to the cross.

Matthew 8:20

And Jesus said to him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. The title Son of Man appears here for the first time in Matthew, drawing on Daniel 7:13–14 where one like a son of man receives dominion and a kingdom from the Ancient of Days. Jesus applies this exalted title to himself in a context of homelessness: the Son of Man who will receive all authority has, in his earthly mission, no fixed home. The foxes and birds that are lower in the creation hierarchy have settled homes; the Son of Man does not. The contrast invites the scribe to count the cost of following one whose mission involves homelessness and marginality before the glory of Daniel 7 is realized.

Matthew 8:21

Another of the disciples said to him, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. The second would-be disciple's request — to bury his father — seems entirely reasonable and was in fact a paramount duty in Jewish culture: a son's obligation to bury his father superseded almost all other obligations. The request may mean that the father has just died, or it may mean that the disciple wants to wait until his father dies (possibly years away) before committing to follow Jesus. The first interpretation makes the response of verse 22 harsh; the second makes it more comprehensible: some things, even culturally mandated things, cannot take priority over the call to follow.

Matthew 8:22

And Jesus said to him, Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead. The shocking instruction — leave the dead to bury their own dead — is one of the hardest sayings in the Gospels. The dead who bury the dead are those who are spiritually dead, the community that does not know the urgency of the kingdom moment. The call to discipleship creates a new ordering of priorities that can override even the deepest cultural obligations. Luke 14:26 says the disciple must love father and mother less than Jesus — the family bond is not destroyed but relativized by the priority of the kingdom's call.

Matthew 8:23

And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. The disciples follow Jesus into the boat and into the storm — the would-be disciples of verses 19–22 contrasted with the ones who actually get into the boat. Following Jesus wherever he goes means following him into the storm. The boat that crosses the sea is the community of disciples; the storm that threatens the boat is the testing that following Jesus into hostile territory produces. Psalm 107:23–32 describes those who go down to the sea in ships and encounter storms, who cry out to the Lord and are delivered — the pattern that Matthew 8 is enacting.

Matthew 8:24

And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. The great storm that swamps the boat while Jesus sleeps is the scenario that tests whether the disciples' following is understanding or merely proximity. Jesus asleep in the storm is not divine indifference but divine peace — the same peace that Paul describes in Philippians 4:7 as surpassing understanding. The contrast between the disciples' terror and Jesus' sleep is the contrast between faith and anxiety, between the one who trusts the Father and those who have not yet learned to trust the one who trusts the Father.

Matthew 8:25

And they went and woke him, saying, Save us, Lord; we are perishing. The disciples' cry — Save us, Lord; we are perishing — is the prayer of genuine desperation that does not worry about whether the prayer is theologically refined. The Lord who has been healing and exorcising is now being asked to do what only the God of Psalm 107 can do: still the storm. The save us is the same vocabulary as Jesus' name (the Lord saves, Matthew 1:21) — the disciples are calling on the one whose name is salvation to enact his name in the storm. However inadequate their faith (verse 26), they know where to turn in the crisis.

Matthew 8:26

And he said to them, Why are you afraid, O you of little faith? Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. The rebuke before the miracle: little faith, then calm. The little faith is not condemned as no faith — they came to Jesus, which is the beginning of faith. But the terror in the presence of the Lord of the storm is the inconsistency that Jesus addresses. He rebuked the winds and the sea — the same language as exorcising demons in Mark 1:25, suggesting that Jesus treats the chaotic power of the storm as a hostile force to be commanded, not merely a natural phenomenon to be stilled. The great calm after the great storm is the peace that surpasses understanding.

Matthew 8:27

And the men marveled, saying, What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him? The disciples' question — what sort of man? — is the right question in the wrong direction. They are asking about the category of person who can still storms; they should be asking about the God who is present in this person. Psalm 89:9 says God rules the raging sea; Psalm 107:29 says God stilled the storm to a whisper. The disciples' marveling is the beginning of worship — what sort of man is this? will become Lord, where shall we go? (John 6:68) and My Lord and my God! (John 20:28) in the course of the discipleship journey.

Matthew 8:28

And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way. The crossing that terrified the disciples in the storm deposits them in the Gentile territory of the Gadarenes — a region associated with pigs (verse 30), a Gentile marker. The two demon-possessed men who emerge from the tombs are the extremity of human desolation: living in the place of the dead, possessed by forces that make them dangerous to everyone who passes. The tombs communicate death; the fierceness communicates violence; the no one could pass communicates the isolation that the demonic oppression has produced.

Matthew 8:29

And behold, they cried out, What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time? The demons recognize Jesus immediately — Son of God, the title the voice at the baptism used — and ask the right theological question: have you come before the time? The demons know there is an appointed time for their judgment and destruction (Revelation 20:10); they are asking whether Jesus is initiating the final judgment ahead of schedule. The torment they fear is not the exorcism but the eschatological destruction. Their fear communicates their own understanding of Jesus' identity: they know who he is and what his presence means for their future.

Matthew 8:30

Now a herd of many pigs was feeding at some distance from them. The detail of the pig herd locates the narrative in Gentile territory: Jews did not keep pigs. The large herd — about two thousand in Mark 5:13 — grazing at a distance from the possessed men provides the context for the demons' request. The presence of pigs in a Gentile region also carries symbolic weight: the unclean animals from Leviticus 11 grazing in the place where unclean spirits dwell and possess human beings, all of it outside the boundaries of Jewish covenantal space.

Matthew 8:31

And the demons begged him, saying, If you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs. The demons' request — send us into the pigs rather than into the abyss — reflects the reality that Jesus affirms by granting it: demons seek to inhabit bodies (verse 43 in Luke 11 suggests they wander without rest when unhoused). The choice of pigs is the choice of unclean for unclean; the consequence will be the destruction of the pigs. The demons negotiate with Jesus — which itself reveals his authority over them — and he grants the request, but the outcome is not what they sought.

Matthew 8:32

And he said to them, Go. So they came out and went into the pigs, and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the waters. Jesus' single word — Go — and the entire herd rushes to destruction. The pigs in the sea recall the Egyptian army in the sea at the Exodus; the drowning of the forces of oppression in the waters is the liberation pattern repeated. The demons who sought to continue inhabiting bodies by moving to pigs find that the pigs' destruction leaves them without a home. The cost of the two men's liberation — two thousand drowned pigs — is the cost to the local economy that produces the community's response in verse 34.

Matthew 8:33

The herdsmen fled, and going into the city they told everything, especially what had happened to the demon-possessed men. The herdsmen who have lost their livelihood are the witnesses whose report to the city produces a response that is the opposite of the centurion's faith: they ask Jesus to leave rather than seeking what he might offer. The especially what had happened to the demon-possessed men is the remarkable datum: the men who have been impossible to restrain, who lived in the tombs and terrorized passersby, are now free. The witness is to liberation; the response is rejection.

Matthew 8:34

And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region. The whole city comes out, sees Jesus, and asks him to leave. The loss of the pigs outweighs the liberation of the two men in their calculation. The beggar who sought liberation (verse 2), the centurion who sought healing (verse 6), and the disciples who sought rescue from the storm (verse 25) — all of them came to Jesus with need and found it met. The Gadarenes come to Jesus and ask him to remove himself from their territory. The whole chapter has been a study in the varieties of response to Jesus: the excluded seeking inclusion, the powerful acknowledging authority, the fearful calling for rescue, and the economically aggrieved requesting departure.