Luke 5
1As the crowd pressed upon him and listened to the word of God, he was standing beside the Lake of Gennesaret. 2He saw two boats beside the lake, but the fishermen had left them and were washing the nets. 3He got into one of the boats, which belonged to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from the land. 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 lower your nets for a catch.” 5Simon answered, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing. But at your word I will lower the nets.” 6When they did this, they enclosed a great number of fish, and their nets began to tear. 7They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. 8When Simon Peter saw it, he fell at Jesus' knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, because I am a sinful man!” 9For astonishment had seized him and everyone with him at the catch of fish they had taken, 10and likewise James and John, 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.” 11They brought the boats to land, left everything, and followed him.
12While he was in one of the towns, look: there was a man covered with a defiling skin disease. When he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” 13Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing. Be made clean.” Immediately the skin disease left him. 14He ordered him to tell no one: “Instead, go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” 15But the report about him spread still more, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their illnesses. 16He, however, would withdraw to deserted places and pray.
17One day he was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and Judea, and from Jerusalem. The Lord's power was there for him to heal. 18And look: men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they tried to bring him in and lay him before Jesus. 19Finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up onto the roof and lowered him with his little bed through the tiles into the middle, in front of Jesus. 20Seeing their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven.” 21The scribes and Pharisees began reasoning, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins except God alone?” 22Jesus recognized their thoughts and answered them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts? 23Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ 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 little bed, and go to your house.” 25Immediately he rose before them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went to his house, glorifying God. 26Amazement seized them all, and they glorified God. They were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen extraordinary things today.”
27After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” 28Leaving everything, he got up and followed him. 29Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others reclining with them. 30The Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31Jesus answered them, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but those who are ill do. 32I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
33They said to him, “John's disciples fast often and offer prayers, and so do the Pharisees' disciples, but yours eat and drink.” 34He said to them, “Can you make the bridegroom's companions fast while the bridegroom is with them? 35But days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.” 36He also told them a parable: “No one tears a patch from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. Otherwise, he will both tear the new one and the patch from the new will not match the old. 37And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will spill out, and the skins will be destroyed. 38Instead, new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39And no one who has drunk old wine wants new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”