Mark 2

¹ When he returned to Capernaum, some time later word went round that he was in the house;

² and so many people collected that there was no room left, even in front of the door. He was preachingthe word to them

³ when some people came bringing him a paralytic carried by four men,

⁴ but as they could not get the man to him through the crowd, they stripped the roof over the place whereJesus was; and when they had made an opening, they lowered the stretcher on which the paralytic lay.

⁵ Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, 'My child, your sins are forgiven.'

⁶ Now some scribes were sitting there, and they thought to themselves,

⁷ 'How can this man talk like that? He is being blasphemous. Who but God can forgive sins?'

⁸ And at once, Jesus, inwardly aware that this is what they were thinking, said to them, 'Why do you havethese thoughts in your hearts?

⁹ Which of these is easier: to say to the paralytic, "Your sins are forgiven" or to say, "Get up, pick up your stretcher and walk"?

¹⁰ But to prove to you that the Son of man has authority to forgive sins on earth' --

¹¹ he said to the paralytic-'I order you: get up, pick up your stretcher, and go off home.'

¹² And the man got up, and at once picked up his stretcher and walked out in front of everyone, so thatthey were al astonished and praised God saying, 'We have never seen anything like this.'

¹³ He went out again to the shore of the lake; and al the people came to him, and he taught them.

¹⁴ As he was walking along he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office, and he said to him,'Fol ow me.' And he got up and fol owed him.

¹⁵ When Jesus was at dinner in his house, a number of tax collectors and sinners were also sitting attable with Jesus and his disciples; for there were many of them among his fol owers.

¹⁶ When the scribes of the Pharisee party saw him eating with sinners and tax col ectors, they said to hisdisciples, 'Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?'

¹⁷ When Jesus heard this he said to them, 'It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick. I cameto cal not the upright, but sinners.'

¹⁸ John's disciples and the Pharisees were keeping a fast, when some people came to him and said tohim, 'Why is it that John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not?'

¹⁹ Jesus replied, 'Surely the bridegroom's attendants cannot fast while the bridegroom is still with them?As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.

²⁰ But the time wil come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then, on that day, they wilfast.

²¹ No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pul s away from it, thenew from the old, and the tear gets worse.

²² And nobody puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine wil burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins too. No! New wine into fresh skins!'

²³ It happened that one Sabbath day he was taking a walk through the cornfields, and his disciplesbegan to make a path by plucking ears of corn.

²⁴ And the Pharisees said to him, 'Look, why are they doing something on the Sabbath day that isforbidden?'

²⁵ And he replied, 'Have you never read what David did in his time of need when he and his fol owerswere hungry-

²⁶ how he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the loaves of the offeringwhich only the priests are al owed to eat, and how he also gave some to the men with him?'

²⁷ And he said to them, 'The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath;

²⁸ so the Son of man is master even of the Sabbath.'