scum

Luke 5

27 Later, as Jesus left the town, he saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at his tax collector's booth. 

"Follow me and be my disciple," Jesus said to him.

28 So Levi got up, 

left everything, 

and followed him.



  29 Later, Levi held a banquet in his home with Jesus as the guest of honor. 

Many of Levi's fellow tax collectors and other notorious sinners also ate with them.

30 But the Pharisees and their teachers of religious law complained bitterly to Jesus' disciples, 

"Why do you eat and drink with such scum?"



  31 Jesus answered them, 

"Healthy people don't need a doctor—sick people do.

32 I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, 

but those who know they are sinners and need to repent."


I'm gonna say it again...


Is our Christianity so prissy & precious that we won't be seen around the "scum" & "notorious sinners"?


Where would you & I be if the people who influenced us to follow Jesus were as cowardly & uncaring as we often are toward people of whatever questionable character & status we assign them?


Jesus was very plain about it...

He didn't come to hang with "super-Jews"...

or maybe in our day, it would be "super-Christians"...

He came to hang with "scum".


So should we.