Mark

Heals  a Paralytic

After several days, Jesus returned to Capernaum. As word spread that he was in the house,

so many people gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door. While Jesus was preaching to them, 

some people brought a paralyzed man to him.

The four men who carried him couldn’t get close to Jesus because of the crowd, so they opened the roof above the room where Jesus was and lowered the man on his mat through the hole. 

When Jesus saw the faith of those people, he told the paralytic:

“My son, your sins are forgiven.”

 Now, some teachers of the law, who were sitting there, wondered to themselves: 

 “How can he speak like this, insulting God? Who else can forgive sins but God?”

Jesus immediately knew in his spirit what they were thinking and asked: “Why do you wonder? 

Is it easier to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your mat and walk?’ 

But now, you will know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.

And he said to the paralytic:

‘Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home.’”

The man rose and in front of everyone, he picked up his mat and left. They were all amazed and praised God, saying:

‘Never have we seen anything like this!’

Calls Levi: Shares the Table with Sinners

When Jesus went out again beside the lake, a crowd gathered, and he taught them.

As he walked along, he saw a tax collector sitting in his office. This was Levi, the son of Alpheus. Jesus said to him:

“Follow me!”

And he got up and followed him.

And it so happened that, when Jesus was eating at Levi’s house, tax collectors and sinners sat with him and his disciples; there were many of them, and they used to follow Jesus. 

But the Pharisees, men educated in the law, saw Jesus eating with sinners and tax collectors and asked his disciples:

“Why does your master eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

Jesus heard them and replied:

“Healthy people don’t need a doctor, but sick people do. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

On fasting

One day, while the Pharisees and the disciples of John the Baptist were fasting, some people asked Jesus:

“Why is it that both the Pharisees and the disciples of John fast, but yours do not?”

Jesus replied:

“How 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 day will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast. 

 No one sews a piece of new cloth on an old coat, because the new patch will shrink and tear away from the old cloth, making a worse tear. 

And no one puts new wine into old wineskins, for the wine would burst the skins and then both the wine and the skins would be lost. But new wine, new skins!”

On the Sabbath

One Sabbath, he was walking through grain fields. As his disciples walked alongside him, they began picking the heads of grain and crushing them in their hands.

Then the Pharisees said to Jesus:

“Look! They are doing what is forbidden on the Sabbath!”

And he said to them:

“Have you never read what David did in his time of need, when he and his men were very hungry?

He entered the House of God when Abiathar was High Priest and ate the bread of the offering, which only priests are allowed to eat. He also gave some to the men with him.” 

Then Jesus said to them:

“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is master even of the Sabbath.”