Now the houses in that land are not like ours: they have flat roofs, on which you can walk or sit, and a staircase outside the house leads up to it. Most of the houses—all the large ones—have a court in the middle of them. The people crowded into the court of the house where Our Lord was, and He preached to them there. More and more came in till there was no room, not so much as about the door.
Now there was a poor man in the town who was sick of the palsy, so that he could not move; and lay always on a bed. He wished very much to go to Our Lord for help, and his friends who loved him had him carried by four men on a kind of bed to the house where the Lord Jesus was, but they could not come near Him through the crowd. So they carried him up to the roof, and took off enough of the tiles to make room for them to let the bed down by ropes put at each of the four corners, and thus they lowered it down with him on it, right in the front of the Lord. He looked at the sick man, and said, "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee." Jesus knows all we think, and He knew the poor man wished more to be forgiven for his sins than to be made well. But some of the Jews—lawyers—who hated Our Lord, thought to themselves, "How wickedly this man speaks. Who can forgive sins but God only?" They did not think the Lord could know their thoughts; but He did know them, and He said, "Why do you think this in your hearts? Is it easier to say to the sick man, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Arise, take up your bed and walk? But that you may know that (I) the Son of Man have power on earth to forgive sins, I will do so." And then our Lord said to the sick man, who could not move, "Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house." And the sick man rose up and stood, and took up his bed and walked out before them all. And they were amazed, and praised God, saying, "We never saw anything like it before."
THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE SEA OF GALILEE.
After Our Lord had made the sick man well, He walked down to the shore of the beautiful sea of Galilee. The crowd followed Him, and there in the fresh, sweet air, He went on teaching them. Not far off was a place called the Receipt of Custom. I will tell you for what it was used.
The Romans made the Jews pay them money, and this was called a tax. They put men in some places to receive this tax for them, and these men were called Publicans. They were not good men generally, and the priests and great men hated them; but some of them were just and honest. Levi was; and we may be sure he had heard Our Lord preach and loved Him, for one day, as he was sitting at the place where men paid the tax to him, Our Lord went up to him and said, "Follow Me." Levi must have known who spoke to him, for he at once rose and was ready to give up all his riches and go with Jesus. And he was so glad that the Lord had called him that he gave a feast at his house, and asked all his friends to come to it to meet their Saviour. His friends were most of them Publicans like himself, and not all good men; but Jesus and His disciples sat down and ate with them.
Now some of the Jews hated Our Lord; these were the Scribes and Pharisees. The Scribes were men who wrote out the laws—there were no printed books in those days—so they were thought wise; the Pharisees were a set of men who pretended to serve God better than any other people, and made a show of praying, saying their prayers in the streets to be seen of men; but they were not really good. These men came now, and said to Jesus, "How can You sit down to eat with publicans and sinners?" Jesus said, "Men who are well do not want a doctor, but those who are sick do. I am not come to call good men to be sorry for their sins, but bad men." The Pharisees did not know that they and all men were sinners, and that all must be saved by Jesus.
THE RECEIPT OF CUSTOM.
Now I must tell you that Levi had two names, as you have. His first name was Matthew, and a long time after, he wrote the story of Our Lord's life. It is called the Gospel—that means good news—of St. Matthew, and it is in the Bible.