Luke 5

¹It happened that while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret. ²He saw two boats moored at the water’s edge; the fishermen had stepped out of them and were washing their nets. ³Getting into one of the boats, which belonged to Simon, he asked him to put out a little way from the land. Then he sat down and began teaching the crowds from the boat.

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

⁵Simon answered, “Chief, we worked hard through the whole night and caught nothing, but at your command, I will let down the nets.” ⁶When they did this, they netted such a massive number of fish that their nets began to tear. ⁷They 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.

⁸Seeing this, Simon Peter fell at Jesus’s knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” ⁹For shock had seized him and everyone with him at the catch of fish they had taken— ¹⁰and likewise James and John, Zebedee’s sons, who were business partners with Simon. Jesus said to Simon, “Stop being afraid; from now on you will be catching people alive.” ¹¹After they brought the boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

¹²While he was in one of the towns, a man appeared who was covered in leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you have the power to cleanse me.”

¹³Reaching out his hand, Jesus touched him and said, “I am willing. Be cleansed.” Immediately the leprosy left him. ¹⁴Jesus ordered him to tell no one, “But go, show yourself to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing, just as Moses commanded, as evidence for them.”

¹⁵But the report about him spread all the more, and large crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their illnesses. ¹⁶But Jesus himself would frequently withdraw to the wilderness to pray.

¹⁷On one of those days, as he was teaching, there were Pharisees and Torah-teachers sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea, and from Jerusalem. The power of the Lord was present for him to heal. ¹⁸And look—some men were carrying a paralyzed man on a stretcher, and they were trying to bring him in and place him before Jesus. ¹⁹Finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his stretcher through the tiles into the middle of the room, right in front of Jesus.

²⁰Seeing their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.”

²¹The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason among themselves, “Who is this man who speaks slanders against God? Who can forgive sins except God alone?”

²²Perceiving their thoughts, Jesus answered them, “Why are you reasoning this way in your hearts? ²³Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ 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 say to you: Get up, pick up your stretcher, and go to your home.”

²⁵Immediately he stood up in front of them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went to his home, glorifying God. ²⁶Astonishment seized everyone and they began glorifying God; they were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen paradoxes today!”

²⁷After this, Jesus went out and noticed a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” ²⁸Leaving everything behind, Levi stood up and began to follow him.

²⁹Levi threw a great banquet for him in his house, and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others who were reclining at the table with them. ³⁰The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

³¹Jesus answered them, “The healthy have no need for a doctor, but those who are ill do. ³²I have not come to call the just, but sinners to a radical change of heart.”

³³Then they said to him, “The disciples of John fast frequently and offer prayers, 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 is taken away from them; then they will fast in those days.”

³⁶He also told them a parable: “No one tears a patch from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If they do, they will tear the new one, and the patch from the new will not match the old. ³⁷And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will spill out and the skins will be ruined. ³⁸Instead, new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. ³⁹And no one after drinking old wine wants new, for they say, ‘The old is mellowed.’”