Matthew the Tax Collector^(A)

^27 (B)After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, ^(C)“Follow Me.” ²⁸ So he left all, rose up, and ^(D)followed Him.

^29 (E)Then Levi gave Him a great feast in his own house. And ^(F)there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them. ^30 [a]And their scribes and the Pharisees ^[b]complained against His disciples, saying, ^(G)“Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

³¹ Jesus answered and said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ^32 (H)I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

Jesus Is Questioned About Fasting^(I)

³³ Then they said to Him, ^(J)“Why^[c] do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?”

³⁴ And He said to them, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the ^(K)bridegroom is with them? ³⁵ But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days.”

^36 (L)Then He spoke a parable to them: “No one ^[d]puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. ³⁷ And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. ³⁸ But new wine must be put into new wineskins, ^[e]and both are preserved. ³⁹ And no one, having drunk old wine, ^[f]immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is ^[g]better.’ ”