Fluent Translation · Read & Reflect
Mark 2
A Paralytic Is Forgiven and Healed
When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, word spread that he was at home. So many people gathered that there was no more room, not even near the door, and he was speaking the word to them. Some people came bringing a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they opened the roof above him. After digging through it, they lowered the mat on which the man was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Child, your sins are forgiven.”
Some scribes were sitting there, reasoning in their hearts, “Why does this man speak like this? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins except God alone?” Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that they were reasoning this way within themselves. He said to them, “Why are you reasoning these things in your hearts? Which is easier: to say to the paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, pick up your mat, and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralyzed man— “I tell you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home.” He got up, immediately picked up the mat, and walked out in front of everyone. They were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this.”
Jesus Calls Levi
Jesus went out again beside the sea. The whole crowd came to him, and he taught them. As he passed by, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth. Jesus said to him, “Follow me.” Levi got up and followed him. Later, as Jesus was reclining at the table in Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with Jesus and his disciples, because many of them were following him. When the scribes of the Pharisees saw him eating with sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus heard them and said, “Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but those who are sick do. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Questions About Fasting
John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. People came and asked Jesus, “Why do John’s disciples and the Pharisees’ disciples fast, but your disciples do not?” Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them. Then, on that day, they will fast. No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth onto an old garment. Otherwise the new patch pulls away from the old cloth, and the tear becomes worse. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins will be lost. New wine goes into fresh wineskins.”
Lord of the Sabbath
One Sabbath Jesus was passing through the grainfields, and his disciples began making their way while plucking heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look! Why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and those with him were in need and hungry? He entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest and ate the bread of the Presence, which no one except the priests is permitted to eat, and he also gave some to those who were with him.” Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for humanity, not humanity for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”