⁸ This is what the Lord says:

The Call of Matthew

⁹ As Jesus went on from there,^(A) he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, “Follow me,” and he got up and followed him.^(B)

¹⁰ While he was reclining at the table in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came to eat with Jesus and his disciples.^{(C) 11} When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” ^(D)

¹² Now when he heard this, he said, “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick.^{(E) 13} Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice.^[a](F) For I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.”^[b]

Rejection at Nazareth

¹⁶ He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up.^(A) As usual, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day^(B) and stood up to read.^{(C) 17} The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him, and unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written:

²⁰ He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down.^(E) And the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him. ²¹ He began by saying to them, “Today as you listen, this Scripture has been fulfilled.”^(F)

²² They were all speaking well of him^[d] and were amazed by the gracious words that came from his mouth; yet they said, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” ^(G)

²³ Then he said to them, “No doubt you will quote this proverb^[e] to me: ‘Doctor, heal yourself. What we’ve heard that took place in Capernaum,^(H) do here in your hometown also.’”

²⁴ He also said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown.^{(I) 25} But I say to you, there were certainly many widows in Israel in Elijah’s days,^(J) when the sky was shut up for three years and six months while a great famine came over all the land. ²⁶ Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them except a widow at Zarephath in Sidon.^{(K) 27} And in the prophet Elisha’s time, there were many in Israel who had leprosy,^[f] and yet not one of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”^(L)

²⁸ When they heard this, everyone in the synagogue was enraged. ²⁹ They got up, drove him out of town,^(M) and brought him to the edge of the hill that their town was built on, intending to hurl him over the cliff. ³⁰ But he passed right through the crowd and went on his way.^(N)

Jesus Visits Zacchaeus

19 He entered Jericho and was passing through. ² There was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. ³ He was trying to see who Jesus was, but he was not able because of the crowd, since he was a short man. ⁴ So running ahead, he climbed up a sycamore tree to see Jesus, since he was about to pass that way. ⁵ When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down because today it is necessary for me to stay at your house.”

⁶ So he quickly came down and welcomed him joyfully. ⁷ All who saw it began to complain,^(A) “He’s gone to stay with a sinful man.”

⁸ But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, I’ll give half of my possessions to the poor,^(B) Lord. And if I have extorted^(C) anything from anyone, I’ll pay back four times as much.”^(D)

⁹ “Today salvation^(E) has come to this house,” Jesus told him, “because he too is a son of Abraham.^{(F) 10} For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”^(G)