and awe moved everyone to ….

and awe moved everyone to praise God: “We’ve seen wonders today.”

Departing, he observed Levi the tax collector working. He called to him, “Be my follower.” Leaving everything, Levi rose and followed him. At home, Levi made him a feast, and many tax collectors and others came. The Pharisees and their scribes grumbled, “Why eat and drink with sinners?” Jesus replied, “The healthy need no physician, only the sick. I’ve come to call to repentance sinners, not the righteous.”

They said to him, “John’s disciples fast often and offer prayers, also the Pharisees’, but yours eat and drink.” Jesus responded, “You cannot make wedding guests fast with the bridegroom. When the bridegroom’s taken from them, they’ll fast.” He told this parable: “No one tears a patch from new clothing to put on old, or he’ll tear the new, and it won’t match the old. Nor is new wine put into old wineskins, or they’ll burst, spill and be destroyed. New wine requires fresh wineskins. Nor does one drinking old wine desire new, saying, ‘The old is good.’” We too had to see we needed cleansing, our sins forgiven, our smugness countered. So he saved us, calling us to point others to his pardon.

LW Baptist Church meets on Sundays at 9:30 a.m. in the Amphitheater.