4. When Jesus saw their reaction he said, “Why do you respond with evil in your hearts?
5. Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or to say, ‘Stand up and walk’?
6. But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” – then he said to the paralytic – “Stand up, take your stretcher, and go home.”
7. And he stood up and went home.
8. When the crowd saw this, they were afraid and honored God who had given such authority to men.
9. As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax booth. “Follow me,” he said to him. And he got up and followed him.
10. As Jesus was having a meal in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with Jesus and his disciples.
11. When the Pharisees saw this they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
12. When Jesus heard this he said, “Those who are healthy don’t need a physician, but those who are sick do.
13. Go and learn what this saying means: ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
14. Then John’s disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples don’t fast?”
15. Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot mourn while the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days are coming when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and then they will fast.