Luke 5:17-34

¹⁷Now it happened on a certain day that He was teaching, and there were Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from every village of Galilee, and from Judea and Jerusalem, sitting there—and the power of the Lord was there to heal them.

¹⁸And then, some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a cot, and tried to take him in and place him before Him.

¹⁹When they could not find how to do it, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him with the cot through the tiling into the center, in front of Jesus.

²⁰Seeing their faith He said to him, “Man, your sins are forgiven you!”

²¹So the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying: “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

²²But Jesus perceived their reasonings and reacted by saying to them: “Why are you reasoning in your hearts?

²³Which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you’, or to say, ‘Get up and walk!’?

²⁴But that you may know that the Son of the Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralyzed man: “I say to you, get up! Take your cot and go to your house.”

²⁵Immediately he stood up in front of them, took up what he had been lying on, and set out to his own house glorifying God.

²⁶Amazement gripped them all and they kept glorifying God; they were also filled with fear, saying, “We have seen strange things today!”

²⁷After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office; and He said to him, “Follow me!”

²⁸So leaving everything he got up and followed Him.

²⁹Then Levi made a great banquet for Him at his house; and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others who were reclining with them.

³⁰Well the scribes and Pharisees complained about them to His disciples, saying, “How can you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?!”

³¹So Jesus reacted and said to them: “Those who are healthy have no need of a physician, just those who are sick.

³²I have not come to call righteous people to repentance, just sinners.”

³³Then they said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but yours keep eating and drinking?”

³⁴So He said to them: “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?