Mark 2

A few days later, when Jesus came back to Capernaum, word got round that he'd come home.

So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them.

And some men came bringing him a paralysed man, carried by four of them.

Since they couldn't get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they dug through the roof above him, and after breaking through they lowered the mat the man was lying on.

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralysed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves,

“Why does this bloke talk like that? He's blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

And straight away Jesus knew in his spirit what they were thinking, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things?

Which is easier — to say to this paralysed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’?

But so you know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins —” he said to the paralysed man,

“I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.”

And he got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. And they were all amazed, and praised God, saying, “We've never seen anything like this.”

Jesus went out again beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he taught them.

As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth. “Come with me,” Jesus said, and Levi got up and followed him.

While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, because there were a lot of them following him.

When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

And when Jesus heard it he said to them, “It's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I haven't come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours aren't?”

And Jesus said, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he's with them? They can't, as long as they've got him with them.

But the time will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and on that day they'll fast.

Nobody sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old coat. If they do, the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is worse.

And nobody pours new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the wine bursts the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. No — new wine into new wineskins.”

One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along they began to pick some heads of grain.

And the Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what's not lawful on the Sabbath?”

And he said to them, “Haven't you ever read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need?

In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he went into the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he gave some to his companions as well.”

And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath.

So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”