5 One day, as Jesus was standing beside the Sea of Galilee, a crowd of people was pressing in on him to hear the Gospel-word of God. [378] 2 Jesus noticed two boats lying by the lake. The fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. 3 Jesus got into one of the boats, which belonged to Simon, and asked him to push off from shore a little way. Jesus sat down in the boat and taught the crowd. 4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Go out further into deeper water, and lower your nets for a catch.”  5 Simon replied, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing. But if you say so, I will lower the nets.” 6 When they had done this, the nets closed around a great number of fish, and their nets began to break. 7 They waved to their companions in the other boat for them to come over and help. The others arrived, and all together they filled both the boats with fish, so much so that the boats began to sink.  8 When Simon Peter saw what happened, he dropped to his knees before Jesus and exclaimed, “Please go away from me, lord, because I am a sinful man!”  9 He and everyone with him were astounded by the catch that they had landed together, 10 as were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners. “Do not be afraid,” Jesus said to Simon. “From now on you will be fishermen catching people!”  11 When they had pulled the boats up on shore, they left everything behind and followed Jesus.
    12 While he was in one of the cities, a man with severe leprosy was there. He bowed his face to the ground and begged Jesus, “lord, if you are willing, you can heal me.”  13 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” Immediately the leprosy was gone.  14 Jesus ordered him to tell no one, “But go and show yourself to the priest and make the ceremonial offering which Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”  15 But the news about Jesus spread even more, and large crowds came to hear him teach and to be healed of their diseases.  16 Jesus used to retreat into the desert and pray.
    17 One day when he was teaching, some Pharisees and religious teachers were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. The Lord’s healing power was with him,  18 and some men brought a paralyzed man on a mat. They were trying to bring him in and set him down in front of Jesus. 19 But they could not find any way through the crowd, so they went up on the roof and let the man down on the mat through the roof tiles, right in front of Jesus in the middle of the crowd. 20 Jesus saw their faith, and said to the man, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”  21 The religious teachers and the Pharisees began to argue. “Who is this speaking blasphemies?” they asked. “Who can forgive sins except God alone?” 22 Jesus knew what they were arguing about, and said to them, “Why are you debating this in your minds? 23 Which is easier — to say ‘Your sins have been forgiven,’ or to say ‘Get up and walk’?  24 But so that you can be sure that the Son of Man does have the authority on earth to forgive sins…” he said to the paralyzed man, “I am telling you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home.” 25 Immediately the man stood up in front of them. He picked up the mat he had been lying on and walked home, praising God.  26 Everyone was totally astonished. They praised God and, filled with awe, said, “We have seen extraordinary things today.”
    27 After this Jesus left, and he saw a tax collector named Levi sitting in the tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said. 28 And Levi left everything behind, got up, and began to follow Jesus.
    29 Then Levi organized a large banquet for Jesus at his house, and a big crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 30 The Pharisees and their religious teachers complained to Jesus’ disciples. “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” they asked. 31 “Healthy people do not need a doctor, but sick people do,” Jesus answered.  32 “I have not come to call to repentance those who live right, but sinners.”
    33 They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and the Pharisees’ disciples do too, but your disciples are busy eating and drinking.” 34 Jesus said to them, “You cannot make the groomsmen fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you?  35 But the time is coming when the bridegroom will be taken away from them. Then they will fast.” 36 Then he gave them a parable. “Nobody tears out a patch from new clothes to mend old clothes. Otherwise he has torn the new clothes, and the patch from the new does not match the old. 37 And nobody puts new wine into old wineskins, because if they did, the new wine would burst the wineskins and spill out, and the wineskins would be ruined. 38 New wine must be put into fresh wineskins.  39 And nobody who is drinking old wine wants new wine, because he says, ‘The old is good.’”