Luke 5:27–39

Levi and Sinners Called

^27aAnd after that He went out and noticed a tax collector named ^1bLevi sitting in the tax office, and He said to him, “Follow Me.”

²⁸And he ^aleft everything behind, and rose up and began to follow Him.

²⁹And ^aLevi gave a big reception for Him in his house; and there was a great crowd of ^btax collectors and other people who were reclining at the table with them.

^30aAnd the Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and ¹sinners?”

³¹And Jesus answered and said to them, “^aIt is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick.

³²“I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

³³And they said to Him, “^aThe disciples of John often fast and offer prayers, the disciples of the Pharisees also do likewise, but Yours eat and drink.”

³⁴And Jesus said to them, “Can you make the ¹attendants of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?

³⁵“^aBut the days will come; and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.”

³⁶And He was also telling them a parable: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and puts it on an old garment; otherwise he will both tear the new and the piece from the new will not match the old.

³⁷“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined.

³⁸“But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.

³⁹“And no one, after drinking old wine wishes for new; for he says, ‘The old is good enough.’”