Luke 5:4-27

⁴When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Push off into deep water, and throw out your nets for a haul.”

⁵“We have been hard at work all night, Sir,” answered Simon, “and have not caught anything, but, at your bidding, I will throw out the nets.”

⁶They did so, and enclosed such a great shoal of fish that their nets began to break.

⁷So they signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them; and they came and filled both the boats so full of fish that they were almost sinking.

⁸When Simon Peter saw this, he threw himself down at Jesus' knees, exclaiming, “Master, leave me, for I am a sinful man!”

⁹For he and all who were with him were lost in amazement at the haul of fish which they had made;

¹⁰and so, too, were James and John, Zebedee's sons, who were Simon's partners. “Do not be afraid,” Jesus said to Simon; “from today you will catch people.”

¹¹And, when they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything, and followed him.

¹²On one occasion Jesus was staying in a town, when he saw a man who was covered with leprosy. When the leper saw Jesus, he threw himself on his face and implored his help, “Master, if only you are willing, you are able to make me clean.”

¹³Stretching out his hand, Jesus touched him, saying as he did so, “I am willing; become clean.” Instantly the leprosy left the man;

¹⁴and then Jesus impressed on him that he was not to say a word to anyone, “but,” he added, “set out and show yourself to the priest, and make the offerings for your cleansing, in the manner directed by Moses, as evidence of your cure.”

¹⁵However, the story about Jesus spread all the more, and great crowds came together to listen to him, and to be cured of their illnesses;

¹⁶but Jesus used to withdraw to lonely places and pray.

¹⁷On one of those days, when Jesus was teaching, some Pharisees and Doctors of the Law were sitting near by. (They had come from all the villages in Galilee and Judea, and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was on Jesus, so that he could work cures.)

¹⁸And there some men brought on a bed a man who was paralysed. They tried to get him in and lay him before Jesus;

¹⁹but, finding no way of getting him in owing to the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him through the tiles, with his pallet, into the middle of the people and in front of Jesus.

²⁰When he saw their faith, Jesus said, “Friend, your sins have been forgiven you.”

²¹The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees began debating about this. “Who is this man who speaks so blasphemously?” they asked. “Who can forgive sins except God?”

²²When Jesus became aware of the way in which they were debating, he turned to them and exclaimed, “What are you debating with yourselves?

²³Which is the easier? — to say ‘Your sins have been forgiven you’? Or to say ‘Get up, and walk’?

²⁴But so that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins” — he spoke to the paralysed man — “To you I say, Get up, and take up your pallet, and go to your home.”

²⁵Instantly the man stood up before their eyes, took up what he had been lying on, and went to his home, praising God.

²⁶The people, one and all, were lost in amazement, and praised God; and in great awe they said, “We have seen marvellous things today!”

²⁷After this, Jesus went out; and he noticed a tax-gatherer, named Levi, sitting in the tax office, and said to him, “Follow me.”