24. But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralyzed, “I say to you, rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.”
25. He stood up immediately before them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went home, glorifying God.
26. Then astonishment seized them all and they glorified God, and, struck with awe, they said, “We have seen incredible things today.”
27. After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.”
28. And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him.
29. Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with them.
30. The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
31. Jesus said to them in reply, “Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do.
32. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”
33. And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same; but yours eat and drink.”
34. Jesus answered them, “Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?
35. But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.”
36. And he also told them a parable. “No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one. Otherwise, he will tear the new and the piece from it will not match the old cloak.
37. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined.