Jesus Calls His First Disciples
5 1 One day, as the crowd pressed in on him to hear the word of our Father, Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret. a a v1 The Lake of Gennesaret is another name for the Sea of Galilee. 2 He saw two boats lying at the water's edge, but the fishermen had stepped out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, he asked him to put out a little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water, and let down your nets for a catch."
5 Simon answered, "Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing. But because you say so, I will let down the nets." 6 When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to tear. 7 So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. 8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" 9 For amazement had seized him and all who were with him at the catch of fish they had taken, 10 and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people."
11 So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything, and followed him.
A Man Made Clean
12 While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with a serious skin disease. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean."
13 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" And immediately the skin disease left him.
14 Then Jesus ordered him to tell no one, "but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifice that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them."
15 Yet the news about him spread all the more, and great crowds came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. 16 But Jesus often withdrew to deserted places and prayed.
The Father's Power to Forgive
17 One day, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of our Father was present for him to heal the sick. 18 Just then some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat, and they tried to bring him in and lay him before Jesus. 19 When they could not find a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the gathering, right in front of Jesus. 20 When Jesus saw their faith, he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven you."
21 The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, "Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?"
22 Knowing what they were thinking, Jesus answered them, "Why are you reasoning in your hearts? 23 Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Get up 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 you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home."
25 Immediately he stood up in front of them, picked up his mat, and went home glorifying our Father. 26 Amazement seized them all, and they glorified our Father. Filled with awe, they said, "We have seen remarkable things today."
Jesus Calls Levi
27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth. "Follow me," he said to him. 28 So Levi got up, left everything behind, and followed him. 29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were reclining at the table with them. 30 But the Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?"
31 Jesus answered them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
A Question About Fasting
33 They said to him, "John's disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking."
34 Jesus said to them, "Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? 35 But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; in those days they will fast."
36 He also told them a parable: "No one tears a piece from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins; it will spill out, and the skins will be ruined. 38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, 'The old is good.'"