Jesus · c. AD 28
Chapter 18
Through the Roof
When they could not come near to him for the crowd, they removed the roof where he was. When they had broken it up, they let down the mat that the paralytic was lying on.Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”
was in one of the towns when a man full of came to him. In Matthew this happened when Jesus came down from the mountain, with great crowds following him. The man knelt in front of Jesus. Matthew says he worshiped him, and Luke says that when he saw Jesus, he bowed down with his face to the ground. And he begged him, “Lord, if you want to, you can make me clean.”
Mark says Jesus was moved with compassion. He stretched out his hand and touched the man and said, “I want to. Be made clean.”
The leprosy left him at once, and he was made clean.
Then Jesus gave him a strict warning and sent him off right away. “Make sure you don’t say anything to anyone,” he told him. “Go and show yourself to the instead, and offer the things commanded for your cleansing, as proof to them.”
Long before, the Lord had told Moses that on the day a man with leprosy was made clean, he was to be brought to the priest.
But the man went out and began to talk about it a great deal. He spread the news so widely that Jesus could no longer go openly into a town. Jesus stayed out in places where no one lived, and people came to him from everywhere.
Luke says that word about Jesus spread farther than ever, and great crowds came together to hear him and to have him heal their illnesses. But he went away into the wilderness and prayed.
Some days later Jesus came back to , and people heard that he was at home. Matthew says he crossed over by boat to his own city.
Right away so many people gathered that there was no space left, not even around the door. And Jesus told them the message.
Luke says that on one of those days, while Jesus was teaching, there were and teachers of the law sitting nearby. They had come from every village of , , and . The power of the Lord was with him to heal them.
Then some men came, bringing a paralyzed man who was lying on a mat. Mark says there were four of them carrying him. Luke says they tried to bring him inside and lay him in front of Jesus.
But they couldn’t get near Jesus because of the crowd, and they couldn’t find a way to bring the man in. So they went up onto the roof and took it apart over the spot where Jesus was. When they had broken through, they let down the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. Luke says they lowered him on his mat through the roof tiles, down into the middle, in front of Jesus.
When Jesus saw their faith, he spoke to the paralyzed man. “Son,” he said, “your sins are forgiven.” In Matthew he begins, “Son, cheer up!” and in Luke he says, “Man, your sins are forgiven.”
Some of the were sitting there, and they thought to themselves, “Why does this man speak like that? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Luke says the scribes and the Pharisees began to think this way, and they asked, “Who is this who speaks blasphemy?” In Matthew the scribes say to themselves, “This man blasphemes.”
Right away Jesus knew in his spirit what they were thinking. “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?” he asked them. In Matthew he says, “Why do you think evil in your hearts?”
He went on, “Which is easier: to tell the paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to tell him, ‘Get up, take up your mat, and walk’? But that you may know that the has authority on earth to forgive sins—” Then, to the paralyzed man, he said, “I tell you, get up, take up your mat, and go home.”
The man got up. At once he picked up the mat he had been lying on and went out in front of them all, and he went home. Luke says he gave glory to God as he went.
Everyone was amazed, and they gave glory to God. “We never saw anything like this!” they said. Matthew says that when the crowds saw it, they were full of wonder and glorified God, who had given such authority to men. Luke says amazement took hold of them all, and they were filled with fear. “We have seen strange things today,” they said.
Jesus went out again by the sea. The whole crowd came to him, and he taught them.
As he walked on from there, he saw a sitting at the tax office. Mark names him the son of Alphaeus, and Luke calls him Levi. In Matthew he is a man called . “Follow me,” Jesus said to him.
And the man got up and followed Jesus. Luke says he left everything.
Jesus was eating at the table in the house, and many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and his . There were many of them, and they followed him. Luke says Levi had made a great feast for Jesus in his house, and there was a great crowd of tax collectors and others at the table with them.
The scribes and the Pharisees saw that Jesus was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, and they said to his disciples, “Why is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?” In Matthew it is the Pharisees who ask, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” In Luke the scribes and the Pharisees grumble at his disciples. “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?” they ask.
Jesus heard it, and he answered them, “Those who are healthy don’t need a doctor, but those who are sick do.” In Matthew he goes on, “But you go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’” Then he said, “I have not come to call the righteous. I have come to call sinners to .”
Now ’s disciples and the Pharisees were , going without food. They came and asked Jesus, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don’t?”
In Matthew it is John’s disciples who come to him and ask, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples don’t fast?” In Luke the question is, “Why do John’s disciples often fast and pray, and the disciples of the Pharisees too, but yours eat and drink?”
Jesus answered them, “Can the friends of the fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they can’t fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then, when that day comes, they will fast.” In Matthew he asks, “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?”
Jesus went on, “No one sews a piece of cloth that has never been shrunk onto an old coat, or else the patch shrinks, the new cloth tears away from the old, and the hole gets worse.”
Luke says he also told them this : “No one takes a piece from a new coat and puts it on an old one, or else he will tear the new one, and the piece from the new won’t match the old either.”
“No one puts new wine into old either,” Jesus said, “or else the new wine bursts the skins, the wine pours out, and the skins are destroyed. No, new wine has to be put into fresh wineskins, and both are kept safe.”
And in Luke he says, “No one who has drunk old wine wants new right away, because he says, ‘The old is better.’”