2:1 Now 1 after some days, when he returned to Capernaum, 2 the news spread 3 that he was at home. 2:2 So many gathered that there was no longer any room, not even by 4 the door, and he preached the word to them. 2:3 Some people 5 came bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. 6 2:4 When they were not able to bring him in because of the crowd, they removed the roof 7 above Jesus. 8 Then, 9 after tearing it out, they lowered the stretcher the paralytic was lying on. 2:5 When Jesus saw their 10 faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” 11 2:6 Now some of the experts in the law 12 were sitting there, turning these things over in their minds: 13 2:7 “Why does this man speak this way? He is blaspheming! 14 Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 2:8 Now 15 immediately, when Jesus realized in his spirit that they were contemplating such thoughts, 16 he said to them, “Why are you thinking such things in your hearts? 17 2:9 Which is easier, 18 to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up, take your stretcher, and walk’? 2:10 But so that you may know 19 that the Son of Man 20 has authority on earth to forgive sins,” – he said to the paralytic 21 – 2:11 “I tell you, stand up, take your stretcher, and go home.” 22 2:12 And immediately the man 23 stood up, took his stretcher, and went out in front of them all. They were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
2:13 Jesus 24 went out again by the sea. The whole crowd came to him, and he taught them. 2:14 As he went along, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax booth. 25 “Follow me,” he said to him. And he got up and followed him. 2:15 As Jesus 26 was having a meal 27 in Levi’s 28 home, many tax collectors 29 and sinners were eating with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 2:16 When the experts in the law 30 and the Pharisees 31 saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 32 2:17 When Jesus heard this he said to them, “Those who are healthy don’t need a physician, but those who are sick do. 33 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
2:18 Now 34 John’s 35 disciples and the Pharisees 36 were fasting. 37 So 38 they came to Jesus 39 and said, “Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don’t fast?” 2:19 Jesus 40 said to them, “The wedding guests 41 cannot fast while the bridegroom 42 is with them, can they? 43 As long as they have the bridegroom with them they do not fast. 2:20 But the days are coming when the bridegroom will be taken from them, 44 and at that time 45 they will fast. 2:21 No 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. 2:22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins; 46 otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins will be destroyed. Instead new wine is poured into new wineskins.” 47
2:23 Jesus 48 was going through the grain fields on a Sabbath, and his disciples began to pick some heads of wheat 49 as they made their way. 2:24 So 50 the Pharisees 51 said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is against the law on the Sabbath?” 2:25 He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry – 2:26 how he entered the house of God when Abiathar was high priest 52 and ate the sacred bread, 53 which is against the law 54 for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to his companions?” 55 2:27 Then 56 he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for people, 57 not people for the Sabbath. 2:28 For this reason the Son of Man is lord 58 even of the Sabbath.”