12
And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and
1glorified God, saying, "We never saw anything like this!"
Jesus Calls Levi
13 He went out again beside the sea, and
2all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them.
14
3And as he passed by, he saw
4Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him,
"Follow me." And he rose and followed him.
15
And as he reclined at table in his house, many
5tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.
16
And
6the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples,
7"Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?"
17
And when Jesus heard it, he said to them,
"Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 8I came not to call the righteous, 9but sinners."
A Question About Fasting
18 Now
10John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him,
11"Why do John's disciples and
12the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?"
19
And Jesus said to them,
13"Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.
20
14The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and 15then they will fast in that day.
21
No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.
22
And no one puts new wine into old 16wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins--and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins."