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)

Jesus Questioned About Fasting^(D)

¹⁴ Then John’s^(E) disciples came and asked him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often,^(F) but your disciples do not fast?”

¹⁵ Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them?^(G) The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.^(H)

¹⁶ “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. ¹⁷ Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”