Christ heals the sick of the palsy. He calls Matthew and excuses his disciples.

¹ And after some days, he again entered into Capernaum.

² And it was heard that he was in the house. And so many gathered that there was no room left, not even at the door. And he spoke the word to them.

³ And they came to him, bringing a paralytic, who was being carried by four men.

⁴ And when they were not able to present him to him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where he was. And opening it, they lowered down the stretcher on which the paralytic was lying.

⁵ Then, when Jesus had seen their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”

⁶ But some of the scribes were sitting in that place and thinking in their hearts:

⁷ “Why is this man speaking in this way? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins, but God alone?”

⁸ At once, Jesus, realizing in his spirit that they were thinking this within themselves, said to them: “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?

⁹ Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise up, take up your stretcher, and walk?’

¹⁰ But so that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” he said to the paralytic:

¹¹ “I say to you: Rise up, take up your stretcher, and go into your house.”

¹² And immediately he got up, and lifting up his stretcher, he went away in the sight of them all, so that they all wondered. And they honored God, by saying, “We have never seen anything like this.”

¹³ And he departed again to the sea. And the entire crowd came to him, and he taught them.

¹⁴ And as he was passing by, he saw Levi of Alphaeus, sitting at the customs office. And he said to him, “Follow me.” And rising up, he followed him.

¹⁵ And it happened that, as he sat at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners sat at table together with Jesus and his disciples. For those who followed him were many.

¹⁶ And the scribes and the Pharisees, seeing that he ate with tax collectors and sinners, said to his disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”¹

1. 2:16The term ‘publican’ can also refer more generally to government officials, in this case to the government of the Romans, who were occupying the Holy Land.(Conte)

¹⁷ Jesus, having heard this, said to them: “The healthy have no need of a doctor, but those who have maladies do. For I came not to call the just, but sinners.”

¹⁸ And the disciples of John, and the Pharisees, were fasting. And they arrived and said to him, “Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”

¹⁹ And Jesus said to them: “How can the sons of the wedding fast while the groom is still with them? During whatever time they have the groom with them, they are not able to fast.

²⁰ But the days will arrive when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they shall fast, in those days.

²¹ No one sews a patch of new cloth onto an old garment. Otherwise, the new addition pulls away from the old, and the tear becomes worse.

²² And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the wineskins, and the wine will pour out, and the wineskins will be lost. Instead, new wine must be put into new wineskins.”

²³ And again, while the Lord was walking through the ripe grain on the Sabbath, his disciples, as they advanced, began to separate the ears of grains.

²⁴ But the Pharisees said to him, “Behold, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbaths?”

²⁵ And he said to them: “Have you never read what David did, when he had need and was hungry, both he and those who were with him?

²⁶ How he went into the house of God, under the high priest Abiathar, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful to eat, except for the priests, and how he gave it to those who were with him?”

²⁷ And he said to them: “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.

²⁸ And so, the Son of man is Lord, even of the Sabbath.”