(Tap footnote to read it. Old Testament quotations are underlined. "Love" with a caret ("^love") is agapé.1"agapé" The Greek words ἀγάπη (agapé, noun), and ἀγαπάω (agapaó; verb) are typically translated "love". However, unlike our English word "love" – which primarily speaks of affection and feelings – agapé centers on choice and behavior. It’s the "love" based on will, choice, behavior, and action; not feelings. (Feelings-based love is the Greek word φιλέω (phileó), which properly means "brotherly love/affection".) Thus, you could hate someone passionately and still treat him with "agapé". Agapé "love" is best understood as the pursuit of what is most beneficial to someone or something, regardless of the cost to yourself or the type of response received from the person or thing. It can also indicate a preference for someone or something over other things. )
The paralyzed man and forgiving sins
- And having entered into Capernaum again after some days, it was heard that He’s in a house.
- And many were assembled, so it was no longer possible to make space, not even at the door, and He was speaking the word to them.
- And they come, bringing a paralyzed man to Him carried by four men.
- And not being able to bring him near Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof over where He was. And having dug through it, they lower the bed-mat on which the paralyzed man was lying.
- And having seen their faith, Jesus tells the paralyzed man: “Child, your sins are forgiven.”
- Now, some of the scribes are sitting there and reasoning in their hearts:
- “Why is this man speaking this way? He is blaspheming. Who is able to forgive sins except God alone?”
- And having immediately known in His Spirit that they are reasoning in themselves this way, Jesus says to them: “Why are you reasoning these things in your hearts?
- “Which is easier to say to the paralyzed man: ‘your sins are forgiven’, or to say: ‘Rise, and pick up your bed mat, and walk’?
- “But so you might *know that the Son of Man has authority on the earth to forgive sins…” He tells the paralyzed man:
- “I tell you: rise, pick up your bed mat and go to your house.”
- And he was raised immediately. And having picked up the bed mat, he went out in front of all, for all to be astonished and to glorify God, saying: “We never saw anything like this!”
Calling Levi (Matthew)
- And He went out again along the sea, and all the crowd was coming to Him and He was teaching them.
- And while passing by, He saw Levi (the son of Alphaeus) sitting at the tax collector’s booth. And He tells him: “Follow Me.” And having risen, he followed Him.
- And it happens that He went to recline at the table1“recline” is literal. In ancient times, they laid down on a low table to eat. Thus, “reclining” in those days is similar to “sitting down” today to share a meal. in his house. And many tax collectors and sinners were reclining at the table with Jesus and His disciples, for they were many and were following Him.
- And having seen Him eating with sinners and tax collectors, the scribes of the Pharisees were saying to His disciples: “Why is He eating with tax collectors and sinners?”
- And having heard this, Jesus tells them: “The healthy men have no need of a physician, but the sick men do. I didn’t come to call righteous men, but sinners.”
Fasting and wineskins
- And the disciples of John and the Pharisees were fasting. And they come and say to Him: “Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don’t fast?”
- And Jesus told them: “The groomsmen2“groomsmen” is literally “sons of the bridal chamber”. In that age, this referred to the men who helped the groom prepare whatever was needed for the wedding, especially the “bridal chamber” (honeymoon suite). The closest modern equivalent is groomsmen. aren’t able to fast while the bridegroom is with them, are they? For as long a time as they have the bridegroom with them, they aren’t able to fast.
- “But the days will come when the bridegroom was taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.
- “No one sews an unshrunk cloth patch on an old cloak. And if he does, the patch pulls away from it (the new from the old) an even worse tear happens.
- “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. And if he does, the wine will break the wineskins and the wine is ruined, and the wineskins too. But new wine is put into new wineskins.
Lord of the Sabbath
- And it happened that He used to pass through the grain fields on the Sabbaths. And His disciples began to make their way, plucking the heads of grain.
- And the Pharisees were saying to Him: “Behold, why are they doing what’s not lawful to do on the Sabbaths?”
- And He tells them: “Did you never read what David did when he had a need and hungered, he and the men with him?”
- “How he entered into the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest and ate the bread of presentation, which isn’t lawful for anyone to eat except the priests; and he even gave it to the men being with him.”
- And He was telling them: “The Sabbath came into being because of man, and not man because of the Sabbath.”
- “So then, the Son of Man is Lord even over the Sabbath.”
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