Jesus Heals a Paralytic

1A few days ²⁶later Jesus went to Capernaum again, and the people heard that he was at home.

2²⁷Immediately many were gathered together, so that there was no longer any room, not even at the door, and he was speaking the word to them.

3Then some people came to him, bringing a paralytic carried by four men.

4Since they were not able to ²⁸come near Jesus because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where he was. After digging through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying.

5When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, yoʋr sins are forgiven ²⁹yoʋ.”

6Now some of the scribes were sitting there and questioning in their hearts:

7“Why does this man ³⁰speak such blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

8Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves, so he said to them, “Why are you questioning these things in your hearts?

9Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Yoʋr sins are ³¹forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up yoʋr mat, and walk’?

10But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” —he said to the paralytic—

11“I say to yoʋ, rise, pick up yoʋr mat, and go to yoʋr house.”

12So the man ³²immediately rose, picked up his mat, and went out in front of them all, so that they were all amazed and began glorifying God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

Jesus Calls Levi

13Once again Jesus went out by the sea. The entire crowd came to him, and he taught them.

14As he was walking along, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth. Jesus said to him, “Follow me,” so Levi rose and followed him.

15Later, as Jesus was reclining at the table in Levi's house, many tax collectors and sinners reclined with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.

16When the scribes ³³and the Pharisees saw Jesus eating with ³⁴tax collectors and sinners, they said to his disciples, “Why is he eating ³⁵and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?”

17When Jesus heard this, he said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a physician, but the sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners ³⁶to repentance.”

A Question About Fasting

18Now the disciples of John and ³⁷the disciples of the Pharisees were fasting. So some people came and said to Jesus, “Why is it that the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but yoʋr disciples do not fast?”

19Jesus said to them, “Can the bridegroom's attendants fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.

20But the days are coming when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in ³⁸those days.

21“No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. For ³⁹the garment's new patch would pull away from the old cloth, and a worse tear would be made.

22And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the ⁴⁰new wine would burst the wineskins; the wine would be ⁴¹spilled, and the wineskins would be ruined. But new wine ⁴²must be put into new wineskins.”

Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath

23On the Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to make their way, plucking heads of grain.

24So the Pharisees said to him, “Behold, why are they doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?”

25He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he had need and was hungry, he and those who were with him,

26how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except for the priests, and how he also gave it to those who were with him?”

27Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

28So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”