Jesus calls Matthew the tax collector
Matthew 9:9–13; Mark 2:13–17; Luke 5:27–32
Jesus called Levi, also named Matthew, from his tax booth, and he followed. At the banquet Matthew gave, Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners, to the Pharisees' dismay.
When Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Mark 2:17 (World English Bible)
Tax collectors worked for Rome or Herod and were despised as collaborators and cheats. Jesus answered the critics that the sick, not the healthy, need a doctor.
Dating notes
Ussher: AD 31. The month shown is estimated from the order of events in Ussher's harmony, so that events of the same year appear in sequence.