Now even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they said to him, “Teacher, what are we to do?”

Call of Levi (Matthew)

After that He went out and looked at a tax collector named Levi sitting in the tax office, and He said to him, “Follow Me.”

And Levi gave a big reception for Him in his house; and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and other people who were reclining at the table with them.

The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling to His disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?”

When all the people and the tax collectors heard this, they acknowledged God’s justice, having been baptized with the baptism of John.

The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a heavy drinker, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’

The Lost Sheep

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near Jesus to listen to Him.

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

Now He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt:

“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

The Pharisee stood and began praying this in regard to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, crooked, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to raise his eyes toward heaven, but was beating his chest, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’

And there was a man called by the name of Zaccheus; he was a chief tax collector and he was rich.

Paying Taxes to Caesar

The scribes and the chief priests tried to lay hands on Him that very hour, and yet they feared the people; for they were aware that He had spoken this parable against them.

Is it permissible for us to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”

And they began to bring charges against Him, saying, “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to pay taxes to Caesar, and saying that He Himself is Christ, a King.”