Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹⁸ So don’t remember what happened in earlier times. Don’t think about what happened a long time ago, ¹⁹ because I am doing something new! Now you will grow like a new plant. Surely you know this is true. I will even make a road in the desert, and rivers will flow through that dry land. ²⁰ The wild animals will thank me. The large animals and birds will honor me when I put water in the desert and make rivers flow through that dry land. I will do this to give water to my chosen people. ²¹ I made them, and they will sing songs of praise to me.

²² “Jacob, you did not pray to me. Israel, you became tired of me. ²³ You have not brought your sheep as sacrifices to me. You have not honored me with your sacrifices. I did not force you to give gifts to me like slaves. I did not force you to burn incense until you became tired. ²⁴ So you did not use your money to buy things to honor me. But you did force me to be like your slave. You sinned until the bad things you did made me very tired.

²⁵ “I, I am the one who wipes away all your sins. I do this to please myself. I will not remember your sins.

To the director: A song of David.

¹⁸ But if you can believe God, then you can believe that what we tell you is never both yes and no. ¹⁹ The Son of God, Jesus Christ, the one that Silas, Timothy, and I told you about was not yes and no. In Christ it has always been yes. ²⁰ The yes to all of God’s promises is in Christ. And that is why we say “Amen” through Christ to the glory of God. ²¹ And God is the one who makes you and us strong in Christ. God is also the one who chose us for his work.^{[a] 22} He put his mark on us to show that we are his. Yes, he put his Spirit in our hearts as the first payment that guarantees all that he will give us.

Jesus Heals a Crippled Man^(A)

2 A few days later, Jesus came back to Capernaum. The news spread that he was back home. ² A large crowd gathered to hear him speak. The house was so full that there was no place to stand, not even outside the door. While Jesus was teaching, ³ some people brought a paralyzed man to see him. He was being carried by four of them. ⁴ But they could not get the man inside to Jesus because the house was so full of people. So they went to the roof above Jesus and made a hole in it. Then they lowered the mat with the paralyzed man on it. ⁵ When Jesus saw how much faith they had, he said to the paralyzed man, “Young man, your sins are forgiven.”

⁶ Some of the teachers of the law were sitting there. They saw what Jesus did, and they said to themselves, ⁷ “Why does this man say things like that? What an insult to God! No one but God can forgive sins.”

⁸ Jesus knew immediately what these teachers of the law were thinking. So he said to them, “Why do you have these questions in your minds? ^9-10 The Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. But how can I prove this to you? Maybe you are thinking it was easy for me to say to the crippled man, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ There’s no proof it really happened. But what if I say to the man, ‘Stand up. Take your mat and walk’? Then you will be able to see if I really have this power or not.” So Jesus said to the paralyzed man, ¹¹ “I tell you, stand up. Take your mat and go home.”

¹² Immediately the paralyzed man stood up. He picked up his mat and walked out of the room. Everyone could see him. They were amazed and praised God. They said, “This is the most amazing thing we have ever seen!”