New Testament in a Year

Jesus Forgives Sins

9 Jesus got into a boat, crossed over, and came to his own town. ² There people brought to him a man who was paralyzed, lying on a stretcher. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Take heart, son! Your sins are forgiven.”

³ Then some of the experts in the law said among themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!”

⁴ Since Jesus knew their thoughts, he said, “Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? ⁵ Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? ⁶ But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” he then said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, take your stretcher, and go home.”

⁷ The man got up and went home. ⁸ When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe and glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

Calling of Matthew

⁹ As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting in the tax collector’s booth. He said to him, “Follow me.” Matthew got up and followed him.

¹⁰ As Jesus was reclining at the table in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were actually there too, eating with Jesus and his disciples. ¹¹ When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

¹² When Jesus heard this, he said to them, “The healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. ¹³ Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’^[a] In fact, I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

A Question About Fasting

¹⁴ Then John’s disciples came to him and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast at all?”

¹⁵ Jesus said to them, “Can the attendants of the bridegroom mourn while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. ¹⁶ No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, because the patch would tear away from the garment, and the hole would be made even worse. ¹⁷ And people do not pour new wine into old wineskins. If they did, the skins would burst, the wine would be spilled, and the skins would be ruined. Instead they pour new wine into fresh wineskins. By doing that, both are preserved.”