Matthew 9:1-21 ▼

1 After getting into a boat, Jesus crossed to the other side and came to his own city.

2 All at once some people brought him a paralyzed man lying on a stretcher. When Jesus saw their faith, he told the paralyzed man, |Be courageous, son! Your sins are forgiven.|

3 Then some of the scribes told themselves, |This fellow is blaspheming!|

4 But Jesus, knowing what they were thinking, replied, |Why do you have such evil thoughts in your hearts?

5 Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'?

6 But so you will know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...| he told the paralyzed man, |Get up, pick up your stretcher, and go home!|

7 So the man got up and went home.

8 When the crowds saw this, they became frightened and glorified God for giving such authority to humans.

9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's desk and told him, |Follow me.| So he got up and followed him.

10 While he was having dinner at Matthew's home, many tax collectors and sinners arrived and began eating with Jesus and his disciples.

11 The Pharisees saw this and asked his disciples, |Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?|

12 When Jesus heard that, he said, |Healthy people don't need a physician, but sick people do.

13 Go and learn what this means: 'I want mercy and not sacrifice,' because I did not come to call righteous people, but sinners.|

14 Then John's disciples came to Jesus and asked, |Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples don't fast?|

15 Jesus asked them, |The wedding guests can't mourn as long as the groom is with them, can they? But the time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.|

16 |No one patches an old garment with a piece of unshrunk cloth, because the patch pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear results.

17 Nor do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will spill out, and the skins will be ruined. Instead, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.|

18 While Jesus was telling them these things, an official came up and fell down before him. |My daughter has just died,| he said. |But come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.|

19 So Jesus got up and followed him, along with his disciples.

20 Just then a woman who had been suffering from chronic bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the tassel of his garment,

21 because she had been saying to herself, |If I just touch his robe, I will get well.|