Mat 9:9-17 | NASB2020 | STEP | As Jesus went on from there , He saw a man called Matthew sitting in the tax collector’s office ; and He * said to him, “ Follow Me!” And he got up and followed Him.

Matthew 9:9-17

Matthew Called

9 ^aAs Jesus went on from there, He saw a man called ^bMatthew sitting in the tax collector’s office; and He *said to him, “ ^cFollow Me!” And he got up and followed Him.

10 Then it happened that as ^{▼▼Lit He}Jesus was reclining at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and ^{▼▼I.e., irreligious Jews}sinners came and began dining with Jesus and His disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “ ^fWhy is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when Jesus heard this, He said, “It is not ^gthose who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Now go and learn ^{▼▼Lit what is
,} ⁱwhat this means: ‘ ^jI desire ^{▼▼Or mercy}compassion, ^{▼▼Lit and not}rather than sacrifice,’ for ^mI did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

The Question about Fasting

14 Then the disciples of John *came to Him, asking, “Why do we and ⁿthe Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?” 15 And Jesus said to them, “The ^{▼▼Lit sons of the wedding place}attendants of the groom cannot mourn as long as the groom is with them, can they? But the days will come when the groom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16 But no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for ^{▼▼Lit that which fills up}the patch pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear results. 17 Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”