Jesus

One day Jesus was teaching, and the Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. People had come from Jerusalem and from every village of Galilee and Judea, and the power of the Lord was present for Him to heal the sick.

Just then some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. They tried to bring him inside to set him before Jesus,

but they could not find a way through the crowd. So they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.

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

Knowing what they were thinking, Jesus replied, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?

But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on the earth to forgive sins...” He said to the paralytic, “I tell you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home.”

After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth. “Follow Me,” He told him,

and Levi got up, left everything, and followed Him.

Then Levi hosted a great banquet for Jesus at his house. A large crowd of tax collectors was there, along with others who were eating with them.

But the Pharisees and their scribes complained to Jesus’ disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

Jesus answered, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.

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

Then they said to Him, “John’s disciples and those of the Pharisees frequently fast and pray, but Yours keep on eating and drinking.”

Jesus replied, “Can you make the guests of the bridegroom fast while He is with them?

He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will tear the new garment as well, and the patch from the new will not match the old.

One Sabbath Jesus was passing through the grainfields, and His disciples began to pick the heads of grain, rub them in their hands, and eat them.

Jesus replied, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?

Then Jesus declared, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

On another Sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered.

Looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, the scribes and Pharisees were watching Him closely to see if He would heal on the Sabbath.

But Jesus knew their thoughts and said to the man with the withered hand, “Get up and stand among us.” So he got up and stood there.

Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”

And after looking around at all of them, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and it was restored.

But the scribes and Pharisees were filled with rage and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.

In those days Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, and He spent the night in prayer to God.