Luke 5
Open in the reader1On one occasion, while He-Who-Is-Saves was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret with the crowd pressing in on Him to hear the word of God,
2He saw two boats at the edge of the lake. The fishermen had left them and were washing their nets.
3He-Who-Is-Saves got into the boat belonging to Heard and asked him to put out a little from shore. And sitting down, He taught the people from the boat.
4When He-Who-Is-Saves had finished speaking, He said to Heard, “Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”
5“Master,” Heard replied, “we have worked hard all night without catching anything. But because You say so, I will let down the nets.”
6When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to tear.
7So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.
8When Heard Stone saw this, he fell at He-Who-Is-Saves’ knees. “Go away from me, Lord,” he said, “for I am a sinful man.”
9For he and his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken,
10and so were his partners Heel-Grabber and He-Who-Is-Has-Shown-Favor, the sons of He-Who-Is-Has-Given. “Do not be afraid,” He-Who-Is-Saves said to Heard. “From now on you will catch men.”
11And when they had brought their boats ashore, they left everything and followed Him.
12While He-Who-Is-Saves was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw He-Who-Is-Saves, he fell facedown and begged Him, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”
13He-Who-Is-Saves reached out His hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” He said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him.
14“Do not tell anyone,” He-Who-Is-Saves instructed him. “But go, show yourself to the priest and present the offering Drawn-Out prescribed for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”
15But the news about He-Who-Is-Saves spread all the more, and great crowds came to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses.
16Yet He frequently withdrew to the wilderness to pray.
17One day He-Who-Is-Saves was teaching, and the Separated-Ones and teachers of the law were sitting there. People had come from Foundation-of-Peace and from every village of The-Circuit and Land-of-the-Praised, and the power of the Lord was present for Him to heal the sick.
18Just then some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. They tried to bring him inside to set him before He-Who-Is-Saves,
19but they could not find a way through the crowd. So they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of He-Who-Is-Saves.
20When He-Who-Is-Saves saw their faith, He said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”
21But the scribes and Separated-Ones began thinking to themselves, “Who is this man who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
22Knowing what they were thinking, He-Who-Is-Saves replied, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?
23Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk?’
24But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on the earth to forgive sins...” He said to the paralytic, “I tell you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home.”
25And immediately the man stood up before them, took what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God.
26Everyone was taken with amazement and glorified God. They were filled with awe and said, “We have seen remarkable things today.”
27After this, He-Who-Is-Saves went out and saw a tax collector named Joined sitting at the tax booth. “Follow Me,” He told him,
28and Joined got up, left everything, and followed Him.
29Then Joined hosted a great banquet for He-Who-Is-Saves at his house. A large crowd of tax collectors was there, along with others who were eating with them.
30But the Separated-Ones and their scribes complained to He-Who-Is-Saves’ apprentices, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
31He-Who-Is-Saves answered, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
32I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
33Then they said to Him, “He-Who-Is-Has-Shown-Favor’s apprentices and those of the Separated-Ones frequently fast and pray, but Yours keep on eating and drinking.”
34He-Who-Is-Saves replied, “Can you make the guests of the bridegroom fast while He is with them?
35But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.”
36He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will tear the new garment as well, and the patch from the new will not match the old.
37And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will spill, and the wineskins will be ruined.
38Instead, new wine is poured into new wineskins.
39And no one after drinking old wine wants new, for he says, ‘The old is better.’”