Matthew 9:1-17

Easy-to-Read Version

Jesus Heals a Crippled Man^(A)

9 Jesus got into a boat and went back across the lake to his own town. ² Some people brought to him a man who was paralyzed and was lying on a mat. Jesus saw that these people had much faith. So he said to the paralyzed man, “Young man, you will be glad to hear this. Your sins are forgiven.”

³ Some of the teachers of the law heard what Jesus said. They said to themselves, “What an insult to God for this man to say that!”

⁴ Jesus knew what they were thinking. So he said, “Why are you thinking such evil thoughts? ^5-6 The Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. But how can I prove this to you? Maybe you are thinking it was easy for me to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ There’s no proof that it really happened. But what if I say to the man, ‘Stand up and walk’? Then you will be able to see that I really have this power.” So Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “Stand up. Take your mat and go home.”

⁷ The man stood up and went home. ⁸ The people saw this and they were amazed. They praised God for letting someone have such power.

Matthew (Levi) Follows Jesus^(B)

⁹ When Jesus was leaving, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the place for collecting taxes. Jesus said to him, “Follow me.” So he got up and followed Jesus.

¹⁰ Jesus ate dinner at Matthew’s house. Many tax collectors and others with bad reputations came and ate with him and his followers. ¹¹ The Pharisees saw that Jesus was eating with these people. They asked his followers, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and other sinners?”

¹² Jesus heard them say this. So he said to them, “It is the sick people who need a doctor, not those who are healthy. ¹³ You need to go and learn what this Scripture means: ‘I don’t want animal sacrifices; I want you to show kindness to people.’^[a] I did not come to invite good people. I came to invite sinners.”

Jesus Is Not Like Other Religious Leaders^(C)

¹⁴ Then the followers of John came to Jesus and said, “We and the Pharisees fast often, but your followers don’t ever fast. Why?”

¹⁵ Jesus answered, “At a wedding the friends of the bridegroom are not sad while he is with them. They cannot fast then. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them. Then they will fast.

¹⁶ “When someone sews a patch over a hole in an old coat, they never use a piece of cloth that has not already been shrunk. If they do, the patch will shrink and pull away from the coat. Then the hole will be worse. ¹⁷ Also, people never pour new wine into old wineskins. They would break, the wine would spill out, and the wineskins would be ruined. People always put new wine into new wineskins, which won’t break, and the wine stays good.”