Mark

¹A few days later, when Jesus came back to Capernaum, the news spread that he was in the house.

²So many people gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them.

³Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man carried by four of them.

⁴Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the man was lying on.

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

⁶Now some of the scribes were sitting there, reasoning in their hearts,

⁷"Why does this man speak like this? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"

⁸Jesus knew immediately in his spirit what they were thinking, and said to them, "Why are you reasoning like this in your hearts?"

⁹"Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, pick up your mat and walk'?"

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

¹¹"I tell you, get up, pick up your mat and go home."

¹²He got up, picked up his mat and walked out in full view of them all. Everyone was amazed and praised God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!"

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

¹⁴As he walked along, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.

¹⁵While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.

¹⁶When the scribes of the Pharisees saw him eating with sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples, "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?"

¹⁷When Jesus heard this, he said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

¹⁸Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, "Why do John's disciples and the Pharisees' disciples fast, but yours do not?"

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

²⁰"The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast."

²¹"No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse."

²²"And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. New wine must be poured into new wineskins."

²³One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grain fields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick the heads of grain.

²⁴The Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?"

²⁵He answered, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need?"

²⁶"In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. He also gave some to his companions."

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

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