Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A Prayer for Help

Passover Is Celebrated

¹³ A great number of people gathered in Jerusalem in the second month to celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread. ¹⁴ They took all the altars that had been used in Jerusalem for offering sacrifices and burning incense and threw them into Kidron Valley. ¹⁵ And on the fourteenth day of the month they killed the lambs for the Passover sacrifice. The priests and Levites who were not ritually clean became so ashamed that they dedicated themselves to the Lord, and now they could sacrifice burnt offerings in the Temple. ¹⁶ They took their places in the Temple according to the instructions in the Law of Moses, the man of God. The Levites gave the blood of the sacrifices to the priests, who sprinkled it on the altar. ¹⁷ Because many of the people were not ritually clean, they could not kill the Passover lambs, so the Levites did it for them and dedicated the lambs to the Lord. ¹⁸ In addition, many of those who had come from the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun had not performed the ritual of purification, and so they were observing Passover improperly. King Hezekiah offered this prayer for them: ¹⁹ “O Lord, the God of our ancestors, in your goodness forgive those who are worshiping you with all their heart, even though they are not ritually clean.” ²⁰ The Lord answered Hezekiah's prayer; he forgave the people and did not harm them. ²¹ For seven days the people who had gathered in Jerusalem celebrated the Festival of Unleavened Bread with great joy, and day after day the Levites and the priests praised the Lord with all their strength.^{[a] 22} Hezekiah praised the Levites for their skill in conducting the worship of the Lord.

A Second Celebration

After the seven days during which they offered sacrifices in praise of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, ²³ they all decided to celebrate for another seven days. So they celebrated with joy. ²⁴ King Hezekiah contributed 1,000 bulls and 7,000 sheep for the people to kill and eat, and the officials gave them another 1,000 bulls and 10,000 sheep. A large number of priests went through the ritual of purification. ²⁵ So everyone was happy—the people of Judah, the priests, the Levites, the people who had come from the north, and the foreigners who had settled permanently in Israel and Judah. ²⁶ The city of Jerusalem was filled with joy, because nothing like this had happened since the days of King Solomon, the son of David. ²⁷ The priests and the Levites asked the Lord's blessing on the people. In his home in heaven God heard their prayers and accepted them.

Jesus Heals a Paralyzed Man^(A)

2 A few days later Jesus went back to Capernaum, and the news spread that he was at home. ² So many people came together that there was no room left, not even out in front of the door. Jesus was preaching the message to them ³ when four men arrived, carrying a paralyzed man to Jesus. ⁴ Because of the crowd, however, they could not get the man to him. So they made a hole in the roof right above the place where Jesus was. When they had made an opening, they let the man down, lying on his mat. ⁵ Seeing how much faith they had, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “My son, your sins are forgiven.”

⁶ Some teachers of the Law who were sitting there thought to themselves, ⁷ “How does he dare talk like this? This is blasphemy! God is the only one who can forgive sins!”

⁸ At once Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he said to them, “Why do you think such things? ⁹ Is it easier to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, pick up your mat, and walk’? ¹⁰ I will prove to you, then, that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, ¹¹ “I tell you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home!”

¹² While they all watched, the man got up, picked up his mat, and hurried away. They were all completely amazed and praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”