Luke 5:27-39

The Call of Levi

27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office, and He said to him, "Follow Me!"

28 So, leaving everything behind, he got up and began to follow Him.

Dining with Sinners

29 Then Levi hosted a grand banquet for Him at his house. Now there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others who were guests^[a] with them.

30 But the Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to His disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?"

31 Jesus replied to them, "The healthy don't need a doctor, but the sick do.

32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

A Question about Fasting

33 Then they said to Him, "John's disciples fast often and say prayers, and those of the Pharisees do the same, but Yours eat and drink."^[b]

34 Jesus said to them, "You can't make the wedding guests ^[c] fast while the groom is with them, can you?

35 But the days will come when the groom will be taken away from them-then they will fast in those days."

36 He also told them a parable: "No one tears a patch from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. Otherwise, not only will he tear the new, but also the piece from the new garment will not match the old.

37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, it will spill, and the skins will be ruined.

38 But new wine should be put into fresh wineskins. ^[d]

39 And no one, after drinking old wine, wants new, because he says, 'The old is better.' " ^[e]

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit were reclining (at the table); at important meals the custom was to recline on a mat at a low table and lean on the left elbow.
• [b]. Other mss read "Why do John's . . . drink?" (as a question)
• [c]. Or the friends of the groom; lit sons of the bridal chamber
• [d]. Other mss add And so both are preserved.
• [e]. Other mss read is good