Hello, Peter, James, and John
1Back north, in Galilee, Jesus stood along the shore of the Sea of Galilee. [1] Crowds were pressing close to hear the word of God. 2He saw two fishing boats anchored along the shoreline. The fishermen were out of the boats, washing their nets.3Jesus waded into the water and climbed up into one of the boats. It was Simon’s [2] boat. Jesus asked Simon to push the boat out a short distance from the shore. Then, sitting in the boat, Jesus taught the crowd as they listened from the shoreline. 4When Jesus was done talking, he told Simon, “Head out into the deep water and drop your nets so you can catch some fish.”
5Simon said, “Sir, we’ve fished all night and we’ve caught nothing worth keeping. But because you say so, I’ll drop my nets.” 6When they did that, they trapped a school of fish so huge that it was about to snap the nets. 7They signaled their partners in the other boat, calling them over to help. The fishermen caught so many fish that both boats nearly sank.
8When Simon Peter saw this, he dropped to his knees right there in the boat, in front of Jesus, and said, “Please stay away from me, sir. I’m a sinner.” 9He was alarmed by this huge catch. So was everyone else in the boats.
10Simon’s partners were unnerved as well—James and John, the sons of Zebedee. “Don’t be afraid,” Jesus told Simon. “From now on, you’ll be catching human beings.” 11They took the boats to shore. Then they [3] left everything and followed Jesus.
Healed: a Man with Leprosy
12In one of the villages Jesus met a man with leprosy in its advanced stages. When the man saw Jesus, he dropped facedown to the ground in front of him. The man said, “Please, sir, you can make me clean [4] if you want to.”13“I want to,” Jesus said, as he reached out and touched him. In that moment, the man’s leprosy vanished. He was clean again. 14Jesus asked him not to tell anyone. Instead, Jesus told him, “Go right to the priest and take the offering Moses prescribed for the cleansing ritual as a proof to them.” [5] 15Yet somehow news about Jesus spread further and faster than ever before. Huge crowds came to hear him and get healed of their diseases. 16Still, Jesus made time to slip away to isolated places and pray by himself.
How to Shock a Pharisee
17Pharisees [6] and experts in Jewish religious law heard about Jesus, so they came from villages all over Galilee and Judea and even from Jerusalem. They sat among the crowd and listened to Jesus as he taught one day. The Lord’s healing power was ready and waiting for Jesus to use. 18Some men were carrying a paralyzed man on a stretcher. They were trying to get him through the crowd, to Jesus. 19The men couldn’t get the stretcher through the thick crowd. So they took the man up to the roof. They made a hole in the roof by pulling out some of the tiles. Then they lowered the man on the stretcher through the hole and set him smack dab right in front of Jesus.20When Jesus saw the determined faith of these men, he said to the man on the stretcher, “Buddy, your sins are forgiven.”
21Pharisees and scholars known as scribes said to each other, “Who does this guy think he is, insulting God like this? Who forgives sins? Only God, right?”
22Jesus knew what they were thinking. He told them, “Why are you questioning this? 23What’s easier to say? ‘Your sins are forgiven?’ Or ‘Get up and walk?’ 24I’ll tell you what, I’m going to do something to show you that the Son of Humans [7] has the authority to forgive sins.” Jesus told the paralyzed man, “I’m talking to you now. Get up. Pick up your stretcher and go home.”
25Without hesitation, the man stood up in front of the crowd. Then he picked up what he had been carried in on, and he went back to his house thanking God as he left. 26The people weren’t just astonished. They were rattled. But they praised God and said, “We have seen absolutely incredible things today.”
Tax Collectors Welcome
27Jesus went outside. He saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth. Jesus said to him, “Come with me.” 28And that’s just what the tax collector did. He left the booth and followed Jesus.29Levi hosted a huge banquet in his home, in honor of Jesus. A lot of Levi’s fellow tax collectors came to eat with them. 30Pharisees and Jewish scholars were not impressed. They filed a complaint with the disciples of Jesus: “Why are you people eating and drinking with the likes of tax collectors [8] and known sinners?”
31Jesus answered them, “Why not? Healthy people don’t need a doctor. Sick people do. 32I haven’t come here to invite good and godly people to repent. I’ve come to invite sinners.”
33They tossed another complaint at him: “John’s disciples skip eating so they can fast and pray. So do disciples of the Pharisees. Not your disciples. They eat and drink like it’s nobody’s business.”
34Jesus said, “Come on now, would you ask guests at a wedding to keep their hands off the food at the reception, when they’re celebrating with the groom? 35The time is coming when the groom will be taken away from them. They can fast then.”
36He told them a parable. [9] “If you’re going to patch some old clothing, you’re not going to do it by ruining new clothing—by ripping off a strip from the new clothing and sewing the patch on to the old. If you do that, you’ll ruin the new clothing. And the patch won’t match the old clothing anyhow. 37Think of it this way, no one puts new wine into old and brittle wineskins. If we do that, the new wine that is still fermenting and expanding will burst the old wineskins that can’t stretch any. Suddenly, no more wine or wineskin. 38Instead, new wine goes into new wineskins. 39No one who has developed a taste for aged wine wants new wine or grape juice. Instead, they say, ‘I want the good old stuff.’” [10]
