Mark 2:14–22

¹⁴As He was walking along, He saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth. “Follow Me,” He told him, and Levi got up and followed Him.

¹⁵While Jesus was dining at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with Him and His disciples — for there were many who followed Him. ¹⁶When the scribes who were Pharisees saw Jesus eating with these people, they asked His disciples, “Why does He eat^a with tax collectors and sinners?”

¹⁷On hearing this, Jesus told them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

¹⁸Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were often fasting. So people came to Jesus and asked, “Why don’t Your disciples fast like John’s disciples and those of the Pharisees?”

¹⁹Jesus replied, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while He is with them? As long as He is with them, they cannot fast. ²⁰But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.

²¹No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, and a worse tear will result.

²²And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. Instead, new wine is poured into new wineskins.”^b