1And He again entered Capernaum, after some days; and the news spread that He had returned home.
2And they gathered in such large numbers that there was no room to receive them, not even outside the door; and He preached the word unto them.
3And some came to Him, and brought a man paralyzed with palsy, who was borne on a bed by four men.
4And when they could not bring him inside to be near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered part of the roof above where He was; and when they had made an opening, they lowered the bed in which the paralytic lay.
5When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”
6But there were some the scribes sitting there, thinking to themselves,
7“Why does this Man speak such blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, except God, Himself?
8And when Jesus perceived in His spirit what they so reasoned within themselves, He said to them, “Why do you reason think these things in your hearts?
9Which is easier to say to the sick of the palsy, ‘Your sins are forgiven you’; or to say, ‘Arise, and take up your bed, and walk’?
10But so that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins, (He said to the sick of the palsy),
11‘I say unto you, Arise, take up your bed, and go your way into your house’.
12And he immediately got up, took his bed, and walked in full view of them all; causing them all to be amazed, and to glorify God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”.
13And once again Jesus went out beside the sea (lake); and a large crowd came to Him, and He taught them.
14And as He walked along, He saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax collector’s booth, and said to him, “Follow Me”. And Levi arose and followed Him.
15And as Jesus was eating in Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many who followed Him.
16And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, “How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?”
17When Jesus heard this, He said to them, “Those that are well have no need of the physician, but only the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance”.
18And the disciples of John and those of the Pharisees used to fast; and they came and asked Him, “Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?”
19And Jesus answered them, “How can the guests of the bride-chamber fast, while the Bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the Bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.
20But the time will come, when the Bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then they shall fast.
21No one sews a new, unshrunk piece of cloth to patch an old garment, because the new piece used to fill the hole will shrink and pull away from the old, and the tear is just made worse.
22And no man puts new wine into old wineskins, or else the new wine will burst the wineskins, and the wine is spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined; but new wine must be put into new wineskins.” Both the old garment of verse 21 and the old wineskins of verse 22 are references to the staid and cynical religious authorities of the day: the scribes and Pharisees. Those heavily invested in ‘religion’, as they had come to think of it, were no more capable of embracing the new Covenant of God’s grace that Jesus come to proclaim and offer to them, than old flawed garments can benefit from new material, or inflexible wineskins can accept and tolerate new wine.
23And as He passed through the grain fields on the sabbath day, his disciples, as they walked along, began to pluck the ears of grain.
24And the Pharisees said to Him, “Look! Why do they do that which is not lawful on the sabbath day that?”
25And He replied, “Have you never read what David did, when he and his companions were hungry, and in need;
26How, in the days of Abiathar, the high priest, he went into the house of God and ate the consecrated showbread, which is not lawful for any to eat except for the priests, and he also gave it to those who were with him?”
27And He said to them, “The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath.
28And so, the Son of man is also Lord of the sabbath.” Easy Reader Bible: Purple Letter Edition © 2023 by Jim Musser. Used by Permission. All rights Reserved. Bible Hub |
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