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Jesus Calls His First Disciples
1 On one occasion, Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to listen to the word of God.
2 He saw two boats moored beside the lake, but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets.
3 He got into one of the boats, the one that was Simon's, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and began teaching the crowds from the boat.
4 When he finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”
5 Simon answered him, “Master, we have worked hard throughout the entire night and have caught nothing, but at yoʋr word I will let down the net.”
6 When he and the men with him did so, they enclosed such a large number of fish that their net began to break.
7 So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and assist them, and they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.
8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus' knees and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
9 For he and all who were with him were gripped with astonishment at the catch of fish they had taken,
10 including James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were Simon's business partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on yoʋ will be catching people.”
11 So they brought their boats to shore, left everything, and followed Jesus.
Jesus Cleanses a Man with Leprosy
12 While Jesus was in one of the towns, behold, there was a man full of leprosy. When the man saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if yoʋ are willing, yoʋ can make me clean.”
13 So Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be made clean.” Immediately the leprosy left him.
14 Then Jesus ordered him to tell no one, but said, “Go show yoʋrself to the priest, and make an offering for yoʋr cleansing, just as Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
15 But the news about Jesus spread even more, and large crowds would gather together to hear him and to be healed by him of their infirmities.
16 But he would often withdraw to desolate places and pray.
Jesus Heals a Paralytic
17 On one of those days, as he was teaching, some Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was present to heal the people.
18 And behold, some men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed. They were trying to bring him in and place him before Jesus.
19 But when they could not find a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and let him down through the tiles, together with his mat, into the middle of the crowd in front of Jesus.
20 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Man, yoʋr sins are forgiven yoʋ.”
21 But the scribes and the Pharisees began to question what Jesus said: “Who is this that speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
22 Aware of their thoughts, Jesus answered them, “Why are you questioning in your hearts?
23 Which is easier, to say, ‘Yoʋr sins are forgiven yoʋ,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?
24 But 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 yoʋ, rise, pick up yoʋr mat, and go to yoʋr house.”
25 Immediately the man rose up before them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went to his house, glorifying God.
26 Amazement seized them all, and they too began glorifying God. Filled with awe, they said, “We have seen extraordinary things today.”
Jesus Calls Levi
27 After this Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth. Jesus said to him, “Follow me,”
28 and leaving everything behind, Levi rose and followed him.
29 Then Levi gave a great banquet for Jesus in his house, and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others reclining at the table with them.
30 But the scribes of the people and the Pharisees were grumbling at his disciples, saying, “Why are you eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?”
31 Jesus answered them, “It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick.
32 I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
A Question About Fasting
33 Then they said to him, “Why is it that the disciples of John often fast and offer prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees, but yoʋrs eat and drink?”
34 Jesus said to them, “Can you make the bridegroom's attendants fast while the bridegroom is with them?
35 But those days are coming, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, they will fast in those days.”
36 He also told them a parable: “No one puts a patch from a new garment on an old garment. For not only would he tear the new garment, but the patch from the new garment would not match the old garment.
37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the new wine would burst the wineskins and would itself be spilled, and the wineskins would be ruined.
38 But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and then both are preserved.
39 And no one after drinking old wine immediately desires new wine, for he says, ‘The old is better.’ ”