Category: Luke

[4:38] Jesus left the synagogue and went to Simon's home. Simon's mother-in-law was sick with a high fever, and they spoke to Jesus about her.

[4:39] He went and stood at her bedside and ordered the fever to leave her. The fever left her, and she got up at once and began to wait on them.

[4:40] After sunset all who had friends who were sick with various diseases brought them to Jesus; he placed his hands on every one of them and healed them all.

[4:41] Demons also went out from many people, screaming, “You are the Son of God!” Jesus gave the demons an order and would not let them speak, because they knew he was the Messiah.

[4:42] At daybreak Jesus left the town and went off to a lonely place. The people started looking for him, and when they found him, they tried to keep him from leaving.

[4:43] But he said to them, “I must preach the Good News about the Kingdom of God in other towns also, because that is what God sent me to do.”

[4:44] So he preached in the synagogues throughout the country.

[5:1] One day Jesus was standing on the shore of Lake Gennesaret while the people pushed their way up to him to listen to the word of God.

[5:2] He saw two boats pulled up on the beach; the fishermen had left them and were washing the nets.

[5:3] Jesus got into one of the boats—it belonged to Simon—and asked him to push off a little from the shore. Jesus sat in the boat and taught the crowd.

[5:4] When he finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Push the boat out further to the deep water, and you and your partners let down your nets for a catch.”

[5:5] “Master,” Simon answered, “we worked hard all night long and caught nothing. But if you say so, I will let down the nets.”

[5:6] They let them down and caught such a large number of fish that the nets were about to break.

[5:7] So they motioned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They came and filled both boats so full of fish that the boats were about to sink.

[5:8] When Simon Peter saw what had happened, he fell on his knees before Jesus and said, “Go away from me, Lord! I am a sinful man!”

[5:9] He and the others with him were all amazed at the large number of fish they had caught.

[5:10] The same was true of Simon's partners, James and John, the sons of Zebedee. Jesus said to Simon, “Don't be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.”

[5:11] They pulled the boats up on the beach, left everything, and followed Jesus.

[5:12] Once Jesus was in a town where there was a man who was suffering from a dreaded skin disease. When he saw Jesus, he threw himself down and begged him, “Sir, if you want to, you can make me clean!”

[5:13] Jesus reached out and touched him. “I do want to,” he answered. “Be clean!” At once the disease left the man.

[5:14] Jesus ordered him, “Don't tell anyone, but go straight to the priest and let him examine you; then to prove to everyone that you are cured, offer the sacrifice as Moses ordered.”

[5:15] But the news about Jesus spread all the more widely, and crowds of people came to hear him and be healed from their diseases.

[5:16] But he would go away to lonely places, where he prayed.

[5:17] One day when Jesus was teaching, some Pharisees and teachers of the Law were sitting there who had come from every town in Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. The power of the Lord was present for Jesus to heal the sick.

[5:18] Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a bed, and they tried to carry him into the house and put him in front of Jesus.

[5:19] Because of the crowd, however, they could find no way to take him in. So they carried him up on the roof, made an opening in the tiles, and let him down on his bed into the middle of the group in front of Jesus.

[5:20] When Jesus saw how much faith they had, he said to the man, “Your sins are forgiven, my friend.”

[5:21] The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees began to say to themselves, “Who is this man who speaks such blasphemy! God is the only one who can forgive sins!”

[5:22] Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Why do you think such things?

[5:23] Is it easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?

[5:24] 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, “I tell you, get up, pick up your bed, and go home!”

[5:25] At once the man got up in front of them all, took the bed he had been lying on, and went home, praising God.

[5:26] They were all completely amazed! Full of fear, they praised God, saying, “What marvelous things we have seen today!”

[5:27] After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting in his office. Jesus said to him, “Follow me.”

[5:28] Levi got up, left everything, and followed him.

[5:29] Then Levi had a big feast in his house for Jesus, and among the guests was a large number of tax collectors and other people.

[5:30] Some Pharisees and some teachers of the Law who belonged to their group complained to Jesus' disciples. “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and other outcasts?” they asked.

[5:31] Jesus answered them, “People who are well do not need a doctor, but only those who are sick.

[5:32] I have not come to call respectable people to repent, but outcasts.”

[5:33] Some people said to Jesus, “The disciples of John fast frequently and offer prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same; but your disciples eat and drink.”

[5:34] Jesus answered, “Do you think you can make the guests at a wedding party go without food as long as the bridegroom is with them? Of course not!

[5:35] But the day will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

[5:36] Jesus also told them this parable: “You don't tear a piece off a new coat to patch up an old coat. If you do, you will have torn the new coat, and the piece of new cloth will not match the old.

[5:37] Nor do you pour new wine into used wineskins, because the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will pour out, and the skins will be ruined.

[5:38] Instead, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins!

[5:39] And you don't want new wine after drinking old wine. ‘The old is better,’ you say.”

[6:1] Jesus was walking through some wheat fields on a Sabbath. His disciples began to pick the heads of wheat, rub them in their hands, and eat the grain.

[6:2] Some Pharisees asked, “Why are you doing what our Law says you cannot do on the Sabbath?”

[6:3] Jesus answered them, “Haven't you read what David did when he and his men were hungry?

[6:4] He went into the house of God, took the bread offered to God, ate it, and gave it also to his men. Yet it is against our Law for anyone except the priests to eat that bread.”

[6:5] And Jesus concluded, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

[6:6] On another Sabbath Jesus went into a synagogue and taught. A man was there whose right hand was paralyzed.

[6:7] Some teachers of the Law and some Pharisees wanted a reason to accuse Jesus of doing wrong, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath.

[6:8] But Jesus knew their thoughts and said to the man, “Stand up and come here to the front.” The man got up and stood there.

[6:9] Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you: What does our Law allow us to do on the Sabbath? To help or to harm? To save someone's life or destroy it?”

[6:10] He looked around at them all; then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand became well again.

[6:11] They were filled with rage and began to discuss among themselves what they could do to Jesus.

[6:12] At that time Jesus went up a hill to pray and spent the whole night there praying to God.

[6:13] When day came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he named apostles:

[6:14] Simon (whom he named Peter) and his brother Andrew; James and John, Philip and Bartholomew,

[6:15] Matthew and Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon (who was called the Patriot),

[6:16] Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became the traitor.