War Club Tells the Good Story 5
5
TERRITORY OF MANY SPIRITS
1When they finished crossing the lake, they came to the territory of Many Spirits (Gerasenes). 2As soon as Creator Sets Free (Jesus) stepped from the canoe, a man who was tormented by an unclean spirit came up to him. 3This man had been living at the local burial grounds, and no one could bind him, not even with iron chains.
4The people of the village had tried to capture the man and tie him down, but he would tear their ropes and break their chains. No one was strong enough to overpower him. 5Day and night he wandered about the burial grounds and into the mountains. He would never stop wailing and cutting himself with sharp stones. 6When the man saw Creator Sets Free (Jesus) from a distance, he ran up to him and fell down before him.
7“Creator Sets Free (Jesus), Son of the One Above Us All, what are you going to do with us?” the unclean spirits cried out through the man. “Promise me by the Great Spirit that you will not torment us.”
8The unclean spirits said this because Creator Sets Free (Jesus) had said to the man, “Come out of him, you unclean spirit!”
9Then Creator Sets Free (Jesus) asked, “What is the name of the spirit you represent?”
“Our name is Many Soldiers,”#5:9 Lit. Legion, a segment of the occupying Roman army of about five thousand soldiers the evil spirits answered, “for our numbers are great.”
The spirits feared Creator Sets Free (Jesus) and knew he could force them out of the man.
A HERD OF PIGS
10They kept begging him not to send them out of the territory. 11There was a large herd of about two thousand pigs feeding nearby on the side of a mountain.
12“Send us to those pigs over there,” they begged, “so we can enter into them.”
13So he gave them permission. The unclean spirits then came out of the man and entered into the herd of about two thousand pigs. Then the whole herd stampeded down the mountainside headlong into the lake and drowned in the deep water, making a frightful scene.
14The local ones who were watching over the pigs rushed away, shaken and afraid. They went to the nearby village and told everyone all that happened. As word spread, people came from the villages and the countryside to see for themselves.
SET FREE AND MADE WHOLE
15There they found the man who had been tormented by the unclean spirits, sitting quietly at the feet of Creator Sets Free (Jesus). He was clothed and in his right mind. The people trembled with fear 16as they listened to the story of how the man was set free and to the story about the pigs. 17So they begged Creator Sets Free (Jesus) to go away from their land.
18As Creator Sets Free (Jesus) was climbing into his canoe to leave, the man who had been set free from the evil spirits begged him to take him along.
19But Creator Sets Free (Jesus) would not permit it and said to the man, “Return home to your family and friends. Tell them all the good and kind things the Great Spirit has done for you.”
20The man went his way and told the story far and wide in all the territory of the Ten Villages (Decapolis) of what Creator Sets Free (Jesus) had done for him—and all who heard were amazed.
A DESPERATE REQUEST
21Creator Sets Free (Jesus) and his followers canoed back to the other side of the lake. As soon as he arrived, a great crowd began to gather around him at the lakeshore.
22A man named He Gives Light (Jairus), a headman of the local gathering house, pushed his way through the crowd and fell down on his knees in front of Creator Sets Free (Jesus).
23“My little girl is almost dead!” he begged him urgently. “She is my only daughter. Please come and lay your hands on her that she may be healed and live!”
24So Creator Sets Free (Jesus) went with him. The crowd also trailed along, pressing in around him from all sides.
WHO TOUCHED ME?
25There was a woman in the crowd who had been bleeding for more than twelve winters. 26She had spent all she had, putting up with medicine men who were not able to heal her, and she was getting worse.
Under tribal law this woman would be considered unclean and even the things she touched would be unclean also, isolating her from friends and family. She would not be able to marry or participate in the gathering house for prayer.
27When she heard about Creator Sets Free (Jesus), she pressed through the crowd and came up close behind him. She reached out her hand and touched his outer garment, 28for she had said to herself, “If I can only touch his clothes, I know I will be healed.”
29She touched him, and right away the blood stopped flowing and she felt in her body that she was healed.
30Creator Sets Free (Jesus) stopped suddenly, turned, looked around the crowd, and said, “Who touched my clothes?” For he was aware that power had gone out from him.
Fear gripped the heart of this woman, for she had not announced herself as unclean, and even worse, she had touched a spiritual leader. The crowd might turn against her or even have her stoned to death. So she remained silent and said nothing.
31His followers looked around, shrugged their shoulders, and said to him, “You can see that the crowds are pushing and shoving you. How can you say, ‘Who touched me?’”
32Creator Sets Free (Jesus) continued to look around to see who had touched him. 33The woman knew she could hide no longer, so she came forward trembling with fear, fell to the ground in front of him, and told the whole truth.
34“Daughter,” he said to her with great loving kindness in his eyes, “your trust in me has made you well. Now go in peace, for you have been healed of your disease.”
POWER OVER DEATH
35While Creator Sets Free (Jesus) was still speaking, some messengers came from the home of the headman of the gathering house.
“Your little girl has crossed over to death,” they said with sad faces. “Why trouble the Wisdomkeeper any longer?”
The man’s heart fell to the ground, and grief began to creep over him.
36But Creator Sets Free (Jesus) paid no attention to what was said.
“Do not fear!” he said to the headman. “Trust in me alone, and all will be well.”
37He would not permit any to go with him except Stands on the Rock (Peter) and He Takes Over (James) along with his brother He Shows Goodwill (John)—his most trusted message bearers.
38As they came near the house of the headman, they saw and heard an uproar! People were weeping and wailing loudly.
39When he entered into the house, Creator Sets Free (Jesus) said to them, “Why are you making such a noise? Do not weep. The child is not dead. She only sleeps.”
40But they only scorned and laughed at him, for they knew she was dead.
WAKE UP!
So he put them all out of the house except his most trusted message bearers and the father and mother. He went with them into where the girl lay, 41took hold of her hand, and said in his native language, “Talitha cumi,” meaning, “Little girl, wake up!”
42She stood up right away and began to walk, for she was twelve winters old. Her father and mother stood there, amazed beyond words, weeping for joy, for their little girl was alive!
43Creator Sets Free (Jesus) had them give her some food to eat and then firmly told them not to tell anyone what had happened.
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War Club Tells the Good Story 5: FNVNT
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