Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

² Some people brought to him a paralyzed man lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Cheer up, my son! Your sins are forgiven!”

³ “This fellow’s blaspheming!” said some of the scribes to themselves.

⁴ Jesus read their thoughts. “Why let all this wickedness fester in your hearts?” he said. ⁵ “Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? ⁶ But, to let you know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he spoke to the paralyzed man—“Get up, pick up your bed, and go home!”

⁷ And he got up, and went away to his home. ⁸ When the crowds saw it they were frightened, and praised God for giving authority like this to humans.

The call of Matthew

⁹ As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax-office.

“Follow me!” he said to him. And he got up and followed him.

¹⁰ When he was at home, sitting down to a meal, there were lots of tax-collectors and sinners there who had come to have dinner with Jesus and his disciples. ¹¹ When the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax-collectors and sinners?”

¹² Jesus heard them.

“It isn’t the healthy who need a doctor,” he said, “it’s the sick. ¹³ Go and learn what this saying means: ‘It’s mercy I want, not sacrifice.’ My job isn’t to call upright people, but sinners.”