The Parable of the Lost Sheep^(A)

15 Now the tax collectors^(B) and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus.

¹⁵ Here is a trustworthy saying^(A) that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners^(B)—of whom I am the worst.

²⁹ Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors^(A) and others were eating with them. ³⁰ But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect^(B) complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”^(C)

³¹ Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ³² I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”^(D)

¹⁰ While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. ¹¹ When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”^(A)

¹² On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ¹³ But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’^[a](B) For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”^(C)

²⁷ But if a wicked person turns away from the wickedness they have committed and does what is just and right, they will save their life.^(A)

The Parable of the Two Sons

²⁸ “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’^(A)

²⁹ “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.

³⁰ “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.

³¹ “Which of the two did what his father wanted?”

“The first,” they answered.

Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors^(B) and the prostitutes^(C) are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.

²⁰ The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase.^(A) But where sin increased, grace increased all the more,^(B)

²⁹ (All the people, even the tax collectors, when they heard Jesus’ words, acknowledged that God’s way was right, because they had been baptized by John.^(A)

³⁰ Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.”^(A)