Mark 2:14–22

¹⁴And as he^* was passing by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me!” And he stood up and^* followed him.

¹⁵And it happened that he was dining^d in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners were dining with^e Jesus and his disciples, for there were many and they were following him. ¹⁶And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they^* saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, began to say^f to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” ¹⁷And when^* Jesus heard it^*, he said to them, “Those who are healthy do not have need of a physician, but those who are sick.^g I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

On Fasting

¹⁸And John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and they came and said to him, “Why^h do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” ¹⁹And Jesus said to them, “The bridegroom’s attendantsⁱ are not able to fast while the bridegroom is with them, are they?^j As long a time as they have the bridegroom with them, they are not able to fast. ²⁰But days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. ²¹No one sews a patch of unshrunken cloth on an old garment. Otherwise^k the patch pulls away from it—the new from the old—and the tear becomes worse. ²²And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise^l the wine will burst the wineskins and the wine is destroyed and the wineskins too. But new wine is put into new wineskins.”