⁹As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax-collection station, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.

¹⁰And as he sat at dinner^p in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting^q with Jesus and his disciples. ¹¹When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”^* ¹²But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ¹³Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.”^*

The Question about Fasting

¹⁴Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often,^r but your disciples do not fast?”^* ¹⁵And Jesus said to them, “The wedding attendants cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.^* ¹⁶No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. ¹⁷Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are ruined, but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”

Read in Logos

Matthew 9:13: “Go and learn what this means, ‛I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Footnotes

pGk reclined
qGk were reclining
rOther ancient authorities lack often

Cross references

*Mt 11:19; Gal 2:15
*Hos 6:6; Mic 6:6–8; Mt 12:7; 1 Tim 1:15
*Lk 18:12
*Jn 3:29; Acts 13:2, 3; 14:23