Mark 2

¹ A few days later, Jesus entered Capernaum again, and word got around that he was at home.

² So many people gathered there that there was no room left, not even in front of the door, and he was telling them the word.

³ Then some people came, bringing him a paralyzed man carried by four men.

⁴ Since they could not get him near Jesus because of the crowd, they opened the roof above where Jesus was. After making an opening, they lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on.

⁵ When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

⁶ Some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves,

⁷ “Why does this man talk like that? He’s blaspheming. Who can forgive sins except God alone?”

⁸ Jesus immediately realized in his spirit that they were thinking this way among themselves, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?

⁹ Which is easier: to say to the paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, pick up your mat, and walk’?

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

¹¹ “I tell you: get up, pick up your mat, and go home.”

¹² He got up, immediately picked up his mat, and went out in front of everyone. They were all amazed and praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this.”

¹³ Jesus went out again to the shore. The whole crowd came to him, and he taught them.

¹⁴ As he passed by, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth and said to him, “Follow me.” He got up and followed him.

¹⁵ It happened that Jesus was reclining at table in Levi’s house, and many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with him and his disciples, for there were many of them, and they were following him.

¹⁶ When the teachers of the law among the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, “Does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

¹⁷ Jesus heard them and said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a doctor, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

¹⁸ John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. So they came and asked him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”

¹⁹ Jesus answered, “Can the wedding guests fast while the groom is with them? As long as they have the groom with them, they cannot fast.

²⁰ But days will come when the groom is taken away from them, and then, on that day, they will fast.

²¹ No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth onto an old garment. If they do, the new patch pulls away from the old cloth, and the tear gets worse.

²² And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins will be lost. New wine belongs in new wineskins.”

²³ One Sabbath, as Jesus was walking through the grainfields, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain as they walked.

²⁴ The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not permitted on the Sabbath?”

²⁵ He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those who were with him?

²⁶ How he went into the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest, ate the bread of the Presence, which only the priests are permitted to eat, and also gave some to those who were with him?”

²⁷ And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for people, and people were not made for the Sabbath.

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

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