¹Then some days later he went to Capernaum again, and it was reported that he was at someone's home, ²and immediately many gathered together, to the point that there was no room any more, not even space at the door. And while he was speaking the word to them, ³some people carrying a paralysed man came to him, the man being carried by four people, ⁴and not being able to approach him on account of the crowd, they opened up the roof where he was. And when they had broken it up, they lowered the stretcher on which the paralysed man was lying. ⁵Then when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralysed man, “My child, you have been forgiven your sins.” ⁶Now some of the scribes were sitting there, while reasoning in their hearts as follows: ⁷“Why does this man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but one, that is, God?” ⁸And immediately Jesus, having perceived in his spirit that they were reasoning inwardly like this, said to them, “Why are you reasoning about these matters in your hearts? ⁹Which is easier, to say to the paralytic man, ‘You have been forgiven your sins’, or to say ‘Arise, and pick up your stretcher, and walk’? ¹⁰But in order that you may know that the son of man has authority to forgive sins on earth ...” – he said to the paralytic man – ¹¹“I say to you, arise, and pick up your stretcher and go to your home.” ¹²And he arose immediately and picked up his stretcher, and he went out in the presence of all, so that they were all astounded, and they glorified God, saying, “Never have we seen anything like this.” ¹³Then he went out again, by the sea. And the whole crowd would come to him, and he would teach them. ¹⁴And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. ¹⁵And it came to pass as he was reclining at table in his house that many tax collectors and sinners reclined with Jesus and his disciples. For there were many, and they followed him. ¹⁶However, when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to his disciples, “What is this that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?” ¹⁷At which Jesus, having heard it, said to them, “It is not those who are in sound health who need a doctor, but those who are ailing. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” ¹⁸Meanwhile John's disciples, and those of the Pharisees, were fasting, and people came and said to him, “Why do John's disciples and those of the Pharisees fast, whereas your disciples do not fast?” ¹⁹And Jesus said to them, “Surely the wedding guests cannot be fasting while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast, ²⁰but the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and then, in those days, they will fast. ²¹And no-one sews a patch of uncarded flannel onto an old garment, or else the piece added to it pulls on it – the new on the old – and the tear becomes worse. ²²And no-one puts new wine in old wineskins, or else the new wine tears the wineskins, and the wine leaks out, and the wineskins are ruined. Rather, new wine needs to be put in new wineskins.” ²³Then it came to pass that he was passing by on the Sabbath through the cornfields, and his disciples had begun to make a way through, while plucking the ears of corn, ²⁴and the Pharisees said to him, “Look at what they are doing on the Sabbath, which is not permitted”, ²⁵at which he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and was hungry, he and those with him? ²⁶– how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest and ate the showbread, which it is not permitted to eat, except for the priests, and how he also gave some to those who were with him?” ²⁷Then he said to them, “The Sabbath came about on account of man, not man on account of the Sabbath. ²⁸Consequently, the son of man is Lord of the Sabbath as well.”