Mark - Chapter 2

Passage

And after some days he went into Capernaum again. And people heard that he was in the house. So many gathered that there was no room, not even at the door. And he spoke the word to them. And they came to him, bringing a paralyzed man, carried by four men. And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where he was; and opening it, they let down the bed on which the paralyzed man lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he says to the paralyzed man: Son, your sins are forgiven you. And there were some of the scribes sitting there and thinking in their hearts: Why does this man speak like this? He blasphemes. Who can forgive sins but God alone? Jesus, knowing at once in his spirit that they were thinking this within themselves, says to them: Why do you think these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralyzed man: Your sins are forgiven you; or to say: Arise, take up your bed and walk? But so that you may know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins (he says to the paralyzed man): I say to you: Arise. Take up your bed and go into your house. And immediately he got up, took his bed, and went away in the sight of all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying: We have never seen anything like this. And he went out again to the seaside, and all the crowd came to him, and he taught them. And as he was passing by, he saw Levi the son of Alpheus sitting at the tax booth, and he says to him: Follow me. And he got up and followed him. And as he sat at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners sat down together with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. And the scribes and the Pharisees, seeing that he ate with tax collectors and sinners, said to his disciples: Why does your master eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Jesus, hearing this, says to them: Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. For I did not come to call the just, but sinners. Now the disciples of John and the Pharisees used to fast. And they come and say to him: Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast? And Jesus says to them: Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then they shall fast in those days. No one sews a piece of new cloth onto an old garment; otherwise the new patch pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine will be spilled and the skins will be lost. But new wine must be put into new wineskins. And again, as the Lord was walking through the grain fields on the sabbath, his disciples began to go along and pick the heads of grain. And the Pharisees said to him: Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath? And he said to them: Have you never read what David did when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him? How he went into the house of God, under Abiathar the high priest, and ate the loaves of proposition, which only the priests were allowed to eat, and gave them to those who were with him? And he said to them: The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath. Therefore the Son of man is Lord of the sabbath also.