The Call of Levi; Eating with Sinners

After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth. “Follow me,” he said to him.

But the Pharisees and their experts in the law complained to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.

And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same.

And if you lend to those from whom you hope to be repaid, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, so that they may be repaid in full.

The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him, a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’

Then when a woman of that town, who was a sinner, learned that Jesus was dining at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfumed oil.

Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.”

He answered them, “Do you think these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered these things?

The Parable of the Lost Sheep and Coin

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming to hear him.

But the Pharisees and the experts in the law were complaining, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

I tell you, in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need to repent.

In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents.”

The tax collector, however, stood far off and would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, be merciful to me, sinner that I am!’

And when the people saw it, they all complained, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.”