Isaiah 65:5
5who say, “Keep to yourself,do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.”
aThese are a smoke in my nostrils,
a fire that burns all the day.
Matthew 9:12-13
12But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13Go and learn bwhat this means: c‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For dI came not to call the righteous, ebut sinners.”Matthew 20:16
16So fthe last will be first, and the first last.”Matthew 21:28-31
The Parable of the Two Sons
28 g“What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in hthe vineyard today.’ 29And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he ichanged his mind and went. 30And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. 31Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, jthe tax collectors and kthe prostitutes go into lthe kingdom of God before you.Luke 7:37
37 mAnd behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment,Luke 15:2
2And the Pharisees and the scribes ngrumbled, saying, o“This man receives sinners and peats with them.”Luke 15:28-30
28But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, 29but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might qcelebrate with my friends. 30But when this son of yours came, rwho has devoured syour property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’Luke 18:9-11
The Pharisee and the Tax Collector
9He also told this parable to some twho trusted uin themselves that they were righteous, vand treated others with contempt: 10“Two men wwent up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The Pharisee, xstanding by himself, prayed ▼▼Or standing, prayed to himself
zthus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
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