Jesus Calls Levi

Jesus calls Levi from the tax booth, Levi leaves everything, and a banquet follows with many tax collectors and others; when the Pharisees complain about the company, Jesus answers that he has come for the sick and for sinners called to repentance.

A²⁷fter this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth. “Follow Me,” He told him, ²⁸and Levi got up, left everything, and followed Him. ²⁹Then Levi hosted a great banquet for Jesus at his house. A large crowd of tax collectors was there, along with others who were eating with them. ³⁰But the Pharisees and their scribes complained to Jesus’ disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” ³¹Jesus answered, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ³²I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”