48. Help for Everyone

A woman from the land of Canaan stopped Jesus and the disciples as they traveled to the cities of Tyre and Sidon.

She was crying, and said to Jesus, "Son of David, please have mercy on me. My daughter is very sick, and I'm afraid she will die."

The disciples begged Jesus to turn her away. "She is following us and making too much noise."

Then Jesus spoke to her. "I have come only to help the lost people of Israel. You are not one of these people."

The woman kneeled at Jesus' feet. "Please help me, sir." Jesus said, "It is not right to take the food that belongs to my children and throw it to the dogs."

"Yes, that is true, sir," said the woman, "but even dogs are happy to eat the leftovers from their master's table."

Jesus said to her, "You have much faith. The thing you want will be given to you." At that moment, the woman's little girl was healed.

After Jesus left the city, he went back down to the Sea of Galilee. As he passed through a group of villages, some people brought him a deaf and dumb man to be healed. The man could not hear anything, and his speech was so bad that he could hardly be understood by others.

Jesus took the man aside and touched his ears and tongue. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, "Be opened."

Immediately, the man's hearing came back. He opened his mouth to speak, and the words came easily to him. Returning to the crowd, he spoke loudly about the miracle Jesus had done.

"Please, I ask all of you not to tell anyone what has happened here today," Jesus said.

But the more Jesus protested, the more the people insisted that everyone should know about the man who could perform miracles.

"He can do anything," the people said about Jesus. "He can make the deaf hear and the dumb speak."

Another large crowd gathered to hear Jesus speak. This time the disciples had only brought seven loaves of bread and two fish. But Jesus broke them into pieces as he had done before, and all four thousand people who were there got something to eat.

Jesus' popularity spread among the people. Everywhere he went, someone came up to him for healing or for a blessing. One time some people brought their blind friend to Jesus for help.

Jesus led the blind man away from the crowd. He put his hands over the man's eyes. Jesus asked him what he saw.

"I see men that look like trees walking around," he said. Again Jesus touched the man's eyes. This time he told the man to look up in the sky. When he looked down again, he could see everything clearly.

"Go back to your home now," Jesus said to the man. "Don't stop to tell anyone in town about what has happened to you."

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