Mark 2

1When he came back to Capernaum some days later, people heard that he was at home.

2So many gathered that there was no longer any room, not even near the door, and he was speaking the word to them.

3Some people came, bringing to him a paralyzed man carried by four of them.

4When they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him. After digging through it, they lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on.

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

6Now some of the scribes were sitting there, reasoning in their hearts,

7“Why does this man speak like this? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

8Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that they were reasoning this way within themselves, and he said to them, “Why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts?

9Which is easier: to say to the paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, pick up your mat, and walk’?

10But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralyzed man—

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

12He got up, immediately picked up the mat, and went out in front of them all. They were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

13Jesus went out again beside the sea. The whole crowd kept coming to him, and he taught them.

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

15Later, as Jesus was reclining at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were at table with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many of them, and they were following him.

16When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

17When Jesus heard this, he said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

18John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. People came and said to Jesus, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”

19Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.

20But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.

21No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and the tear becomes worse.

22And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins. No, new wine goes into fresh wineskins.”

23One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pick heads of grain.

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

25He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and those with him were hungry?

26He went into the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests, and he also gave some to those who were with him.”

27Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath.

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