12. Once Jesus was in a town where there was a man who was suffering from a dreaded skin disease. When he saw Jesus, he threw himself down and begged him, “Sir, if you want to, you can make me clean!”
13. Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him. “I do want to,” he answered. “Be clean!” At once the disease left the man.
14. Jesus ordered him, “Don't tell anyone, but go straight to the priest and let him examine you; then to prove to everyone that you are cured, offer the sacrifice as Moses ordered.”
15. But the news about Jesus spread all the more widely, and crowds of people came to hear him and be healed from their diseases.
16. But he would go away to lonely places, where he prayed.
17. One day when Jesus was teaching, some Pharisees and teachers of the Law were sitting there who had come from every town in Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. The power of the Lord was present for Jesus to heal the sick.
18. Some men came carrying a paralysed man on a bed, and they tried to take him into the house and put him in front of Jesus.
19. Because of the crowd, however, they could find no way to take him in. So they carried him up on the roof, made an opening in the tiles, and let him down on his bed into the middle of the group in front of Jesus.
20. When Jesus saw how much faith they had, he said to the man, “Your sins are forgiven, my friend.”
21. The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees began to say to themselves, “Who is this man who speaks such blasphemy! God is the only one who can forgive sins!”