Mark, 2

1. After some days Jesus returned to Capernaum. As the news spread that he was at home,

2. so many people gathered that there was no longer room even outside the door. While Jesus was preaching the Word to them,

3. some people brought a paralyzed man to him.

4. The four men who carried him couldn't get near Jesus because of the crowd, so they opened the roof above the room where Jesus was and, through the hole, lowered the man on his mat.

5. When Jesus saw the faith of these people, he said to the paralytic, "My son, your sins are forgiven."

6. Now, some teachers of the Law who were sitting there wondered within themselves,

7. "How can he speak like this insulting God? Who can forgive sins except God?"

8. At once Jesus knew through his spirit what they were thinking and asked, "Why do you wonder?

9. Is it easier to say to this paralyzed man: 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say: 'Rise, take up your mat and walk?'

10. But now you shall know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins." And he said to the paralytic,

11. "Stand up, take up your mat and go home."

12. The man rose and, in the sight of all those people, he took up his mat and went out. All of them were astonished and praised God saying, "We have never seen anything like this!"

13. When Jesus went out again beside the lake, a crowd came to him and he taught them.

14. As he walked along, he saw a tax collector sitting in his office. This was Levi, the son of Alpheus. Jesus said to him, "Follow me." And Levi got up and followed him.

15. And it so happened that while Jesus was eating in Levi's house, tax collectors and sinners were sitting with him and his disciples for there were indeed many of them. But there were also teachers of the Law of the Pharisees' party,

16. among those who followed Jesus, and when they saw him eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, "Why! He eats with tax collectors and sinners!"

17. Jesus heard them and answered, "Healthy people don't need a doctor, but sick people do. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners."

18. One day, when the disciples of John the Baptist and the Pharisees were fasting, some people asked Jesus, "Why is it that both the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but yours do not?"

19. Jesus answered, "How can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.

20. But the day will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them and on that day they will fast.

21. No one sews a piece of new cloth on an old coat, because the new patch will shrink and tear away from the old cloth, making a worse tear.

22. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins, for the wine would burst the skins and then both the wine and the skins would be lost. But new wine, new skins!"

23. One sabbath he was walking through grainfields. As his disciples walked along with him, they began to pick the heads of grain and crush them in their hands.

24. Then the Pharisees said to Jesus, "Look! they are doing what is forbidden on the sabbath!"

25. And he said to them, "Have you never read what David did in his time of need, when he and his men were very hungry?

26. He went into the house of God when Abiathar was High Priest and ate the bread of offering, which only the priests are allowed to eat, and he also gave some to the men who were with him."

27. Then Jesus said to them, "The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.

28. So the Son of Man is master even of the sabbath."