And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was
reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together, so
that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was
preaching the word to them. And they came, bringing to him a
paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him
because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when
they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the
paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the
paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes
were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, “Why does this man
speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God
alone?” And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they
thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you
question these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to
the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up
your bed and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has
authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic—“I say
to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” And he rose and
immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that
they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw
anything like this!”
He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to
him, and he was teaching them. And as he passed by, he saw Levi the
son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him,
“Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.
And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and
sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were
many who followed him. And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they
saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his
disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” And
when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no
need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners.”
Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people
came and said to him, “Why do John's disciples and the disciples of
the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said
to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with
them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot
fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from
them, and then they will fast in that day. No one sews a piece of
unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away
from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one
puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst
the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new
wine is for fresh wineskins.”
One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they
made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And
the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is
not lawful on the Sabbath?” And he said to them, “Have you never
read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and
those who were with him: how he entered the house of God, in the
time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the
Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat,
and also gave it to those who were with him?” And he said to them,
“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son
of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
