Mark 2

Jesus Heals a Paralyzed Man

1 After a few days, Jesus came back to Capernaum, and word got out quick that He was home.

2 So many people packed the place, there was not even room at the door. And He was speaking the word to them.

3 Then some men showed up bringing a paralyzed man, carried by four of them.

4 They could not get through the crowd to Jesus, so they climbed up, tore open the roof above Him, and lowered the man down right in front of Him.

5 Jesus saw their faith and said to the man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

6 Some scribes were sitting there thinking to themselves,

7 “Why is He talking like that, That is blasphemy. Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

8 Jesus knew exactly what they were thinking and said, “Why are you thinking like this in your hearts,

9 What is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, pick up your mat, and walk’,

10 But so you know the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…” He turned to the man

11 and said, “I am telling you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home.”

12 The man got up immediately, grabbed his mat, and walked out right in front of everybody. The whole place was stunned, and they started praising God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this.”

Jesus Calls Levi

13 Jesus went out again by the sea, and a crowd gathered around Him, and He taught them.

14 As He passed by, He saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax booth. Jesus said to him, “Follow Me.” And Levi got up and followed Him.

15 Later, Jesus was at Levi’s house eating, and a lot of tax collectors and sinners were there with Him and His disciples, because many of them were following Him.

16 When the scribes of the Pharisees saw Him eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to His disciples, “Why is He eating with people like that?”

17 Jesus heard them and said, “Healthy people do not need a doctor, sick people do. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Jesus Questioned About Fasting

18 John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. People came and asked Jesus, “Why do John’s disciples and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not?”

19 Jesus said, “Can the wedding guests fast while the groom is still with them, As long as they have got the groom with them, they cannot fast.

20 But the time is coming when the groom will be taken away, and then they will fast.”

21 “No one sews a piece of new cloth on an old garment. If they do, the new patch pulls away from the old, and the tear gets worse.

22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. New wine belongs in new wineskins.”

Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath

23 One Sabbath, Jesus was going through the grainfields, and His disciples started picking heads of grain as they walked.

24 The Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”

25 Jesus said, “Have you not read what David did when he and his men were hungry,

26 During the time of Abiathar the high priest, he went into the house of God and ate the bread that only the priests were allowed to eat, and he gave some to his men too.”

27 Then He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

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