Luke
Chapter 5
Overview
Jesus teaches beside Lake Gennesaret, where fishing boats become both a platform and a lesson. He calls ordinary workers to join him, heals people whom illness has pushed to society’s edges, and claims authority to forgive sins—a claim that alarms respected religious teachers. Pharisees were members of a Jewish movement devoted to careful obedience to God’s law, while tax collectors were widely distrusted for serving the Roman system. As the chapter unfolds, Jesus keeps crossing expected boundaries. The questions grow sharper: Who belongs near God, and can something new fit neatly inside old patterns?
1One day Jesus was standing beside Lake Gennesaret while the crowd pressed around him to hear God’s message.
2He saw two boats at the water’s edge. The fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets.
3Jesus stepped into one of the boats, which belonged to Simon, and asked him to move it a little way from shore. Then Jesus sat down in the boat and taught the crowds.
4When he had finished speaking, he told Simon, “Take the boat out into deep water, and let down your nets for a catch.”
5Simon answered, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”
6When they did, they enclosed such a huge number of fish that their nets began to tear.
7They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help. Their partners came, and together they filled both boats so full that the boats began to sink.
8When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Lord, go away from me, because I am a sinful man.”
9He and everyone with him were overwhelmed with amazement at the number of fish they had caught.
10So were Simon’s partners James and John, the sons of Zebedee. Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on, you will be catching people alive.”
11They brought the boats to shore, left everything, and followed Jesus.
12While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came who was covered with a serious skin disease. When he saw Jesus, he fell facedown and pleaded, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
13Jesus reached out his hand and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean.” Immediately the disease left the man.
14Jesus ordered him not to tell anyone. He said, “Go and show yourself to the priest. Then present the offering for your cleansing that Moses commanded. This will give them evidence that you are clean.”
15But the news about Jesus spread even more. Large crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their illnesses.
16Yet Jesus regularly withdrew to deserted places and prayed.
17One day, as Jesus was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the Jewish law were sitting there. They had come from villages throughout Galilee and Judea, and from Jerusalem. The Lord’s power was with Jesus to heal.
18Some men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a sleeping mat. They tried to bring him inside and place him in front of Jesus.
19But they could not find a way through the crowd. So they went up onto the roof, removed some tiles, and lowered the man on his mat into the middle of the room, directly in front of Jesus.
20When Jesus saw their trust in him, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”
21The experts in the law and the Pharisees began thinking, “Who is this man who speaks with such disrespect toward God? Who can forgive sins except God alone?”
22Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to them, “Why are you considering these things in your hearts?
23Which is easier to say: ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Get up and walk’?
24But I will show you that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home.”
25Immediately the man stood up in front of them, picked up the mat he had been lying on, and went home praising God.
26Everyone was overwhelmed with amazement and praised God. Filled with awe, they said, “We have seen extraordinary things today!”
27After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax-collection booth. Jesus said to him, “Follow me.”
28Levi left everything, got up, and began following him.
29Then Levi held a large banquet for Jesus at his house. A great crowd of tax collectors and other people were eating with them.
30The Pharisees and their experts in the law complained to Jesus’ disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and other sinful people?”
31Jesus answered them, “Healthy people do not need a doctor; sick people do.
32I have not come to call people who consider themselves right with God. I have come to call sinners to change their hearts and lives.”
33They said to Jesus, “John’s disciples often go without food and pray, and the Pharisees’ disciples do the same. But your disciples eat and drink.”
34Jesus replied, “You cannot make the wedding guests go without food while the groom is still with them, can you?
35But the time will come when the groom is taken away from them. Then they will go without food in those days.”
36Jesus also told them this illustration: “No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it onto an old one. If someone does, the new garment will be torn, and the patch from the new garment will not match the old one.
37No one pours new wine into old wineskins—containers made from animal skins. If someone does, the new wine will burst the skins. The wine will spill out, and the skins will be ruined.
38New wine must be poured into new wineskins.
39And no one who has been drinking old wine wants new wine, because that person says, ‘The old wine is good.’”