22. When Jesus perceived their hostile thoughts, he said to them, “Why are you raising objections within yourselves?
23. Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and walk’?
24. But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” – he said to the paralyzed man – “I tell you, stand up, take your stretcher and go home.”
25. Immediately he stood up before them, picked up the stretcher he had been lying on, and went home, glorifying God.
26. Then astonishment seized them all, and they glorified God. They were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen incredible things today.”
27. After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth. “Follow me,” he said to him.
28. And he got up and followed him, leaving everything behind.
29. Then Levi gave a great banquet in his house for Jesus, and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others sitting at the table with them.
30. But the Pharisees and their experts in the law complained to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
31. Jesus answered them, “Those who are well don’t need a physician, but those who are sick do.
32. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
33. Then they said to him, “John’s disciples frequently fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours continue to eat and drink.”
34. So Jesus said to them, “You cannot make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you?
35. But those days are coming, and when the bridegroom is taken from them, at that time they will fast.”
36. He also told them a parable: “No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old garment. If he does, he will have torn the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old.