A miraculous catch of fish
5
📚And it happened that while the people were pressing around him to hear the Word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret,5:1 Gennesaret was another name for Galilee. Here the words of the Lord Jesus are called the Word of God. See John 7:16-17; 12:49-50; 14:24; 17:8.⚜
2 📚and saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake. The fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. 3 📚And he entered one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from land. And he sat down, and taught the people from the boat.
4 📚Now when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down your nets for a catch”.
5:4 The Lord Jesus knew where the fish were in the water, just as He knew everything else. See also John 21:4-7. Both these examples are object lessons teaching an important truth – in His kingdom, activity directed by Jesus is fruitful, but directed by self is fruitless.⚜
5 📚And Simon answering said to him, “Master 📖, we have worked hard all night, and have caught nothing. Nevertheless at your word I will let down the net”.
6 📚And when they had done this, they netted a great number of fish, and their net broke. 7 📚And they signaled to their partners, who were in the other boat, to come and help them. And they came, and filled both boats, so that they began to sink.
8 📚When Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord”.
9 📚For he was astonished, and all who were with him, at the catch of fish they had taken,
5:9 Fishing was their business (Matt 4:18), but this one who had grown up in a carpenter’s house in land-locked Nazareth had shown them where the fish were.⚜
10 📚as also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were Simon’s partners. And Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid. From now on you will catch men”.
5:10 Peter realized something of his sinfulness and unworthiness, but he was not to fear because of that. Actually this realization better equipped him to be a fisher of men. On “fishers of men” see Matt 4:19.⚜
11 📚And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
Jesus heals a leper
12 📚And when he was in a certain city it happened that suddenly a man covered with leprosy, seeing Jesus, prostrated himself and implored him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean”.
13 📚And he put out his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing. Be cleansed”. And immediately the leprosy left him.
14 📚And he ordered him not to tell anyone, “But go and show yourself to the priest, and as a testimony to them, make an offering for your cleansing, just as Moses commanded”.
15 📚But the word about him spread even more, and great crowds came together to hear him, and to be healed by him of their infirmities. 16 📚And he withdrew into the wilderness and prayed 📖.
Jesus heals and forgives a paralytic
17 📚And as he was teaching, it happened that there were Pharisees 📖 and teachers of the Law sitting nearby, who had come from every town of Galilee and Judea, and from Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was present to heal them. 18 📚And, suddenly, some men brought on a cot a man who was paralyzed. And they tried to bring him in and place him before him. 19 📚And when they could not find any way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop, and let him down on his cot through the tiles into their midst in front of Jesus.
20 📚And when he saw their faith, he said to him, “Man, your sins are forgiven you”.
21 📚And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, except God alone?”
22 📚But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, answering he said to them, “What are you reasoning in your hearts? 23 📚Which is easier, to say ‘Your sins are forgiven you’, or to say, ‘Get up and walk?’ 24 📚But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins (he said to the paralyzed man), “I say to you, get up, pick up your cot, and go to your house”.
25 📚And immediately he got up in front of them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went to his own house, glorifying God. 26 📚And they were all amazed, and they glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen strange things today”.
Jesus calls Levi (Matthew) and dines in his house
27 📚And after these things he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, “Follow me”. 28 📚And he left everything, got up, and followed him.
29 📚And Levi made a great feast for him in his own house, and there was a large group of tax collectors and others who sat down with them. 30 📚But their scribes and the Pharisees grumbled against his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
31 📚And Jesus answering said to them, “Those who need a physician are not those who are well, but those who are sick. 32 📚I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance”.
5:27-32 See Luke 9:9-13. Levi is another name for Matthew.⚜
33 📚And they said to him, “Why do the disciples of John often fast and pray, and the disciples of the Pharisees also, but yours eat and drink?”
34 📚And Jesus said to them, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast, while the bridegroom is with them? 35 📚But the days are coming when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days”.
36 📚And he also told them a parable: “No one rips a piece from a new garment to sew on an old one; otherwise, both the new tears and the piece that was taken from the new does not match the old. 37 📚And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be destroyed. 38 📚But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and so both are preserved. 39 📚Also no one drinking old wine will want the new immediately, for he says, ‘The old is better.’ ”
5:39 How slow some people are to try the new wine of the gospel of Christ that brings forgiveness of sins, peace with God, joy, salvation, and eternal life. Their prejudices, intolerance of anything new, pride in the old ways, etc, make them scorn something they have never tried. It is wiser to do as David said in Ps 34:8.⚜