Luke 5 · WEB
Calling Disciples, Healing, and New Wineskins
Listen — WEB narration 0:00 / 0:00 Narration: World English Bible (David Williams), public domain — AudioTreasure.
Tap a verse to copy it, open the Greek, or write a note.
Now while the multitude pressed on him and heard the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret.
2He saw two boats standing by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them, and were washing their nets.
3He entered into one of the boats, which was Simon's, and asked him to put out a little from the land. He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat.
4When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep, and let down your nets for a catch."
5Simon answered him, "Master, we worked all night, and took nothing; but at your word I will let down the net."
6When they had done this, they caught a great multitude of fish, and their net was breaking.
7They beckoned to their partners in the other boat, that they should come and help them. They came, and filled both boats, so that they began to sink.
8But Simon Peter, when he saw it, fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord."
9For he was amazed, and all who were with him, at the catch of fish which they had caught;
10and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid. From now on you will be catching people alive."
11When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything, and followed him.
12While he was in one of the cities, behold, there was a man full of leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell on his face, and begged him, saying, "Lord, if you want to, you can make me clean."
13He stretched out his hand, and touched him, saying, "I want to. Be made clean." Immediately the leprosy left him.
14He commanded him to tell no one, "But go your way, and show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing according to what Moses commanded, for a testimony to them."
15But the report concerning him spread much more, and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities.
16But he withdrew himself into the desert, and prayed.
17On one of those days, he was teaching; and there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every village of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. The power of the Lord was with him to heal them.
18Behold, men brought a paralyzed man on a cot, and they sought to bring him in to lay before Jesus.
19Not finding a way to bring him in because of the multitude, they went up to the housetop, and let him down through the tiles with his cot into the middle before Jesus.
20Seeing their faith, he said to him, "Man, your sins are forgiven you."
21The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, "Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?"
22But Jesus, perceiving their thoughts, answered them, "Why are you reasoning so in your hearts?
23Which is easier to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you;' or to say, 'Arise and walk?'
24But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" (he said to the paralyzed man), "I tell you, arise, take up your cot, and go to your house."
25Immediately he rose up before them, and took up that which he was laying on, and departed to his house, glorifying God.
26Amazement took hold on all, and they glorified God. They were filled with fear, saying, "We have seen strange things today."
27After these things he went out, and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office, and said to him, "Follow me!"
28He left everything, and rose up and followed him.
29Levi made a great feast for him in his house. There was a great crowd of tax collectors and others who were reclining with them.
30Their scribes and the Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, "Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?"
31Jesus answered them, "Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do.
32I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
33They said to him, "Why do John's disciples often fast and pray, likewise also the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink?"
34He said to them, "Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?
35But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them. Then they will fast in those days."
36He also told a parable to them. "No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old garment, or else he will tear the new, and also the piece from the new will not match the old.
37No one puts new wine into old wineskins, or else the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed.
38But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.
39No man having drunk old wine immediately desires new, for he says, 'The old is better.'"
✶
Summary
By the lake of Gennesaret, Jesus uses Peter's empty fishing boat as a pulpit and then commands a miraculous catch that overwhelms two boats, leading Peter, James, and John to leave everything to follow him. He cleanses a leper, then heals a paralyzed man lowered through a roof — first forgiving his sins to demonstrate his divine authority. After calling Levi the tax collector and feasting with sinners, he answers critics with three vivid pictures: the doctor for the sick, the bridegroom's wedding party, and new wine in fresh wineskins, signaling that his Kingdom cannot be contained by old religious forms.
Themes
- Obedience to Jesus' word produces unexpected abundance
- Holiness of Jesus exposes our unworthiness yet calls us closer
- Authority to forgive sins as proof of divine identity
- Mercy for outsiders — lepers, paralytics, tax collectors, sinners
- The newness of the Kingdom cannot fit old containers
Key verses
- Luke 5:10 — “Don't be afraid. From now on you will be catching people alive.”
- Luke 5:24 — “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…”
- Luke 5:32 — “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
- Luke 5:8 — “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord.”
Context & background
Luke, a physician and companion of Paul, wrote c. AD 60-80, emphasizing Jesus' compassion for the poor, women, Gentiles, and outcasts. The lake of Gennesaret is another name for the Sea of Galilee, a freshwater lake in northern Israel surrounded by fishing villages including Capernaum, Bethsaida, and Magdala. Leprosy carried both physical suffering and ritual exclusion under Mosaic law (Leviticus 13-14), so Jesus' touch was as shocking as the cure. Tax collectors like Levi (also called Matthew) collected duties for Rome at customs posts on trade roads such as the Via Maris that ran through Capernaum, making them despised collaborators in the eyes of fellow Jews. Roofs in Galilean homes were typically flat, made of wooden beams and packed earth or clay tiles — easily opened from above.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 43:25 — "I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions" — only God forgives sin, the very claim that scandalizes the scribes here.
- Jeremiah 31:31-34 — The promised new covenant that the new wine of the Kingdom inaugurates.
- John 21:1-11 — A second miraculous catch of fish after the resurrection, echoing this scene.
- Leviticus 13-14 — The law of leprosy and the priest's role in declaring a person clean.
- Matthew 9:1-17; Mark 2:1-22 — Parallel accounts of the paralytic, Levi's call, and the wineskins parable.