Luke 5

1One day, as the crowd was pressing around Jesus to hear the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret.

2He saw two boats at the edge of the lake. The fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets.

3He got into one of the boats, the one that belonged to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.

4When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down your nets for a catch.”

5Simon answered, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”

6When they had done this, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to tear.

7So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

8When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”

9For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken,

10and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were Simon’s partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will be catching people.”

11So they brought their boats to shore, left everything, and followed him.

12While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man covered with leprosy was there. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

13Jesus reached out his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing. Be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him.

14Then Jesus ordered him to tell no one, “but go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing as Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

15Yet the news about him spread all the more, and large crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their illnesses.

16But he would often withdraw to deserted places and pray.

17One day, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal.

18Just then some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a bed, and they were trying to bring him in and lay him before Jesus.

19When they could not find a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.

20When he saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”

21The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, “Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

22Jesus knew what they were thinking and answered them, “Why are you reasoning like this in your hearts?

23Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?

24But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralyzed man—“I tell you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home.”

25Immediately the man stood up in front of them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went home, glorifying God.

26Amazement seized them all, and they glorified God. They were filled with awe and said, “We have seen remarkable things today.”

27After this Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth. He said to him, “Follow me.”

28And Levi got up, left everything, and followed him.

29Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were reclining at the table with them.

30But the Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

31Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.

32I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

33They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.”

34Jesus said to them, “Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?

35But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.”

36He also told them a parable: “No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new one, and the patch from the new will not match the old.

37And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will spill out, and the skins will be ruined.

38No, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins.

39And no one who has drunk old wine wants the new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”