Matthew 9:1-12

Living Bible

9 So Jesus climbed into a boat and went across the lake to Capernaum, his hometown.^[a]

² Soon some men brought him a paralyzed man on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the sick man, “Cheer up, son! For I have forgiven your sins!”

³ “Blasphemy! This man is saying he is God!” exclaimed some of the religious leaders to themselves.

⁴ Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked them, “Why are you thinking such evil thoughts? ^5-6 I, the Messiah,^[b] have the authority on earth to forgive sins. But talk is cheap—anybody could say that. So I’ll prove it to you by healing this man.” Then, turning to the paralyzed man, he commanded, “Pick up your stretcher and go on home, for you are healed.”

⁷ And the man jumped up and left!

⁸ A chill of fear swept through the crowd as they saw this happen right before their eyes. How they praised God for giving such authority to a man!

⁹ As Jesus was going on down the road, he saw a tax collector, Matthew,^[c] sitting at a tax collection booth. “Come and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him, and Matthew jumped up and went along with him.

¹⁰ Later, as Jesus and his disciples were eating dinner at Matthew’s house,^[d] there were many notorious swindlers there as guests!

¹¹ The Pharisees were indignant. “Why does your teacher associate with men like that?”

¹² “Because people who are well don’t need a doctor! It’s the sick people who do!” was Jesus’ reply.