13. Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be clean!’ And immediately the leprosy left him.
14. Then Jesus ordered him, ‘Don’t tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.’
15. Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their illnesses.
16. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
17. One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal those who were ill.
18. Some men came carrying a paralysed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus.
19. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.
20. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven.’
21. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, ‘Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?’