Lu-ca 5

The great catch of fish and the call of Simon

¹Once, as Jesus stood beside the lake of Gennesaret, the crowd was pushing in around him to hear the word of God. ²He noticed two boats drawn up at the edge of the lake. The fishermen had climbed out of them and were washing their nets. ³He got into one of the boats, the one that belonged to Simon, and asked him to push off a short way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. ⁴When he had finished speaking, he told Simon, “Take the boat out where the water is deep, and lower your nets to catch fish.” ⁵Simon replied, “Master, we worked hard the whole night through and caught nothing. But on your word I will lower the nets.” ⁶So they did this, and they closed their nets around a great mass of fish. Their nets were starting to tear. ⁷They waved to their partners in the other boat to come over and lend a hand. The partners came, and together they loaded both boats with fish until the boats were starting to go under. ⁸When Simon Peter saw this, he threw himself down at Jesus’s knees and said, “Lord, leave me! I am a man full of sin.” ⁹He said this because the haul of fish they had brought in had left him stunned, and all who were with him as well. ¹⁰Zebedee’s sons, James and John, Simon’s partners, were stunned in the same way. “Do not be afraid,” Jesus told Simon. “From now on you will be catching people.” ¹¹Once the boats were on land, they walked away from everything and followed him.

Jesus makes a man with leprosy clean

¹²In one of the towns where Jesus was, there was a man covered all over with leprosy. Seeing Jesus, he fell face down and pleaded with him, “Lord, you can make me clean, if you choose to.” ¹³He stretched out his hand and laid it on the man. “I do want to,” he said. “Be made clean.” The leprosy left him that very moment. ¹⁴Jesus gave him strict orders not to tell anyone. “Instead,” he said, “go and let the priest examine you. Then bring the offering Moses ordered for your cleansing, as evidence to them.” ¹⁵But word about Jesus went out farther than ever. Large crowds kept gathering to listen and to be healed of their illnesses. ¹⁶Yet he kept slipping away to places in the wilderness to pray.

Authority on earth to forgive sins

¹⁷On one of those days, while he was teaching, some Pharisees and teachers of the law were seated there. They had come from all the villages of Galilee, from Judea, and from Jerusalem. The power of the Lord was present for him to heal.^{a 18}Just then some men arrived with a paralyzed man lying on a bed. They wanted to carry him in and lay him in front of Jesus. ¹⁹The crowd left them no way of getting him in. So they climbed up on the roof, took away some of the tiles, and let him down on his bed into the middle of everyone, in front of Jesus. ²⁰Jesus saw their faith and said, “My friend, your sins stand forgiven.” ²¹The scribes and Pharisees started to debate among themselves: “Who is this man, speaking blasphemy like this? Who has the power to forgive sins? Only God!” ²²Jesus was aware of what was going through their minds, and he replied, “Why do you debate this in your hearts? ²³Which is easier to say: ‘Your sins stand forgiven,’ or ‘Get up and walk’? ²⁴But to show you that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” he said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, stand up, take your bed, and go off to your house.” ²⁵Right away the man stood up in front of them, picked up the bed he had been lying on, and went home giving glory to God. ²⁶Everyone was overcome with amazement. They glorified God, and full of awe they said, “What we have seen today is beyond belief!”

Levi leaves his tax booth

²⁷Later, Jesus went out and caught sight of a tax collector named Levi, seated at the place where he collected taxes. Jesus told him, “Follow me.” ²⁸He stood up, left it all, and began following him.

Eating with tax collectors and sinners

²⁹Levi then gave a large feast at his house in honor of Jesus. A big crowd of tax collectors and other people were guests at the table with them. ³⁰This made the Pharisees and their own scribes grumble. They said to his disciples, “How can you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” ³¹“People who are well have no use for a doctor,” Jesus answered them, “but people who are ill do. ³²The reason I have come is to call sinners to repentance, not the righteous.”

Bridegroom, patches and wineskins

³³Then they said to him, “John’s disciples fast frequently and offer prayers, and the Pharisees’ disciples do the same. Yours, though, keep eating and drinking.”^{b 34}He answered them, “Would you make the guests at a wedding fast while the bridegroom is still among them? ³⁵Days are coming, though, when the bridegroom will be taken away from them. Then, in those days, they will fast.” ³⁶He told them a parable as well: “Nobody cuts a patch out of a new coat to sew on an old one. If anyone did, the new coat would be ruined, and the patch from the new would not suit the old coat either. ³⁷Nor does anyone store new wine in old wineskins. That would make the skins split open; the new wine would spill, and the skins would be lost. ³⁸Instead, new wine has to be put into fresh skins.^{c 39}And nobody who has been drinking old wine wants the new. ‘The old is good,’ they say.”^d