THE CALL OF LEVI

27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office,e and he said to him, “Follow me.” 28 So, leaving everything behind, he got up and began to follow him.

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 reclining at the table with them.f 30 But the Pharisees and their scribesg were complaining to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

31 Jesus replied to them, “It is not those who are healthy who need a doctor, but those who are sick. 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.”D

34 Jesus said to them, “You can’t make the wedding guests fast while the groom is with them, can you? 35 But the timeE will comeh 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 No, new wine is put into fresh wineskins.F 39 And no one, after drinking old wine, wants new, because he says, ‘The old is better.’ ”G

LORD OF THE SABBATH

6 On a Sabbath, he passed through the grainfields.i His disciples were picking heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. 2 But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”j

3 Jesus answered them, “Haven’t you read what David and those who were with him did when he was hungry—4 how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat?k He even gave some to those who were with him.”l 5 Then he told them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

6 On another Sabbathm he entered the synagogue and was teaching. A man was there whose right hand was shriveled. 7 The scribes and Pharisees were watching him closely,n to see if he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they could find a charge against him.o 8 But he knew their thoughtsp and told the man with the shriveled hand, “Get up and stand here.”H So he got up and stood there. 9 Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you: Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”q 10 After looking around at them all,r he told him, “Stretch out your hand.”s He did, and his hand was restored.I 11 They, however, were filled with rage and started discussing with one another what they might do to Jesus.