Jesus

One day when Yeshua was teaching, there were P'rushim and Torah-teachers present who had come from various villages in the Galil and Y'hudah, also from Yerushalayim; and the power of ADONAI was with him to heal the sick.

Some men came carrying a paralyzed man lying on a bed. They wanted to bring him inside and lay him in front of Yeshua,

but they couldn't find a way to get him in because of the crowd. So they went up onto the roof and lowered him on his mattress through the tiles into the middle of the gathering, right in front of Yeshua.

When Yeshua saw their trust, he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven you."

But Yeshua, knowing what they were think ing, answered, "Why are you turning over such thoughts in your hearts?

But look! I will prove to you that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins." He then said to the paralytic, "I say to you: get up, pick up your mattress and go home!"

Later Yeshua went out and saw a tax-collector named Levi sitting in his tax-collection booth; and he said to him, "Follow me!"

He got up, left everything and followed him.

Levi gave a banquet at his house in Yeshua's honor, and there was a large group of tax-collectors and others at the table with them.

The P'rushim and their Torah-teachers protested indignantly against his talmidim, saying, "Why do you eat and drink with tax-collectors and sinners?"

It was Yeshua who answered them: "The ones who need a doctor aren't the healthy but the sick.

I have not come to call the `righteous,' but rather to call sinners to turn to God from their sins."

Next they said to him, "Yochanan's talmidim are always fasting and davvening, and likewise the talmidim of the P'rushim; but yours go on eating and drinking."

Yeshua said to them, "Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is still with them?

Then he gave them an illustration: "No one tears a piece from a new coat and puts it on an old one; if he does, not only will the new one continue to rip, but the piece from the new will not match the old.

One Shabbat, while Yeshua was passing through some wheat fields, his talmidim began plucking the heads of grain, rubbing them between their hands and eating the seeds.

Yeshua answered them, "Haven't you ever read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?

"The Son of Man," he concluded, "is Lord of Shabbat."

On another Shabbat, when Yeshua had gone into the synagogue and was teaching, a man was there who had a shriveled hand.

The Torah-teachers and P'rushim watched Yeshua carefully to see if he would heal on Shabbat, so that they could accuse him of something.

But he knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Come up and stand where we can see you!" He got up and stood there.

Then Yeshua said to them, "I ask you now: what is permitted on Shabbat? Doing good or doing evil? Saving life or destroying it?"

Then, after looking around at all of them, he said to the man, "Hold out your hand." As he held it out, his hand was restored.

But the others were filled with fury and began discussing with each other what they could do to Yeshua.

It was around that time that Yeshua went out to the hill country to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God.