Luke 5

¹ Once, the crowd was pressing in around Jesus to hear the word of God, and he was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret.

² He saw two boats drawn up by the lake. The fishermen had gotten out and were washing their nets.

³ He got into one of the boats, which belonged to Simon, and asked him to push out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.

⁴ When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Push out into deep water, and let down your nets for a catch.”

⁵ Simon answered, “Master, we worked all night and caught nothing. But because you say so, I’ll let down the nets.”

⁶ They did this and caught a great number of fish, and their nets were beginning to tear.

⁷ So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They came and filled both boats, so that they were nearly sinking.

⁸ When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”

⁹ For amazement had seized him and everyone with him because of the catch of fish they had made.

¹⁰ The same was true of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.”

¹¹ They brought the boats to shore, left everything, and followed him.

¹² While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man covered with leprosy appeared. When he saw Jesus, he fell facedown and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

¹³ Jesus reached out his hand, touched him, and said, “I am willing. Be made clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him.

¹⁴ He ordered him not to tell anyone. “But go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

¹⁵ But news about him spread more and more, and large crowds gathered to hear him and be healed of their diseases.

¹⁶ But he would withdraw to deserted places and pray.

¹⁷ One day, Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village in Galilee and Judea, and from Jerusalem. The power of the Lord was with him to heal.

¹⁸ Then some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a bed, and they were trying to find a way to bring him in and place him before Jesus.

¹⁹ Since they could not find a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up to the roof and lowered him through the tiles, on his bed, into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus.

²⁰ When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”

²¹ The teachers of the law and the Pharisees began thinking, “Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins except God alone?”

²² Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to them, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?

²³ Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?

²⁴ But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—then he said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you: get up, pick up your bed, and go home.”

²⁵ At once he stood up in front of them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went home, glorifying God.

²⁶ Everyone was astonished and glorified God. Filled with awe, they said, “Today we have seen extraordinary things.”

²⁷ After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.”

²⁸ He left everything, got up, and followed him.

²⁹ Levi gave him a great feast at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were reclining at the table with them.

³⁰ The Pharisees and their teachers of the law grumbled against his disciples: “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

³¹ Jesus answered them, “Those who are healthy don’t need a doctor, but those who are sick do.

³² I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

³³ They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and say prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees. But yours eat and drink.”

³⁴ Jesus said to them, “Can you make the wedding guests fast while the groom is with them?

³⁵ But the days will come when the groom is taken away from them; then, in those days, they will fast.”

³⁶ He also told them a parable: “No one tears a patch from a new garment to put it on an old garment. If he does, he tears the new one, and the patch taken from the new one does not match the old.

³⁷ And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the wineskins, the wine will spill, and the wineskins will be ruined.

³⁸ Instead, new wine must be put into new wineskins.

³⁹ And no one who has drunk old wine wants new, because he says, ‘The old is good.’”

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