The Catch of Fish and the First Followers
1One day, as the crowd pressed in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret. 2He saw two boats moored at the water’s edge; the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. 3He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to push out a little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 4When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” 5Simon answered, “Master, we worked all night long and took nothing. But since you say so, I will let down the nets.” 6When they did, they closed in on such a mass of fish that their nets were beginning to tear. 7They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that the boats began to sink. 8When Simon Peter saw it, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Get away from me, Lord — I am a sinful man.” 9For he and everyone with him were seized with astonishment at the haul of fish they had taken, 10and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were Simon’s partners. Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will be catching people alive.” 11So they brought the boats to shore, left everything and followed him.
A Man Made Clean
12While he was in one of the towns, a man covered with a skin disease saw Jesus, fell face down and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” 13Jesus reached out his hand and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean.” And immediately the disease left him. 14Then he ordered him to tell no one. “Go and show yourself to the priest, and make the offering for your cleansing that Moses commanded, as evidence to them.” 15Yet word about him spread all the more, and great crowds gathered to listen and to be healed of their illnesses. 16But he would withdraw to deserted places and pray.
Forgiven and Made to Walk
17One day he was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was with him to heal. 18Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat, trying to bring him in and lay him down in front of Jesus. 19Finding no way through because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him with his mat through the tiles, right into the middle, in front of Jesus. 20Seeing their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.” 21The scribes and the Pharisees began to argue: “Who is this man, speaking blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 22Jesus knew what they were thinking and answered them, “Why are you arguing this 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 tell you: get up, pick up your mat and go home.” 25At once the man stood up in front of them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went home praising God. 26Amazement took hold of them all, and they praised God and were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen incredible things today.”
Levi Follows and Gives a Banquet
27After this he went out and noticed a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” 28Levi left everything behind, got up and followed him. 29Then Levi held a great banquet for him at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were reclining at the table with them. 30The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
The Question of Fasting
33They said to him, “John’s disciples fast often and say their 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? 35The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them; then, in those days, they will fast.” 36He also told them a parable: “No one tears a patch from a new coat and sews it on an old one. If he does, he ruins the new coat, and the patch from the new will not match the old. 37And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine spills out and the skins are ruined. 38New wine has to go into new wineskins. 39And no one who has been drinking the old wants the new; he says, ‘The old is fine.’”
