scum

Mark 2

 13 Then Jesus went out to the lakeshore again and taught the crowds that were coming to him. 

14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at his tax collector’s booth. 

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

So Levi got up and followed him.

15 Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other notorious sinners. (There were many people of this kind among Jesus’ followers.) 16 But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees[a] saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum?[b]”

17 When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

I always share this passage every time it turns up in my daily readings.

Most of the time, people emphasis the last thing that Jesus said in it. I think it's appropriate to do that, but that's not what has always stood out to me.

What always struck me is that MANY "notorious sinners" were numbered among Jesus' followers.

I've often wondered what constituted a "notorious sinner" - I'm sure I could designate what those kinds of people might have been back then - I'm sure you could come of with some equally colorful possibilities.

As is highlighted, the Pharisees - the religious "happy pants" of the time 😁 - considered these notorious sinners, these social outcasts, to be "scum"

And yet, these "scum" WANTED to be around Jesus, & endured probable the socially rude behavior of others, to be around Jesus.

This situation begs 2 questions...

What was there about Jesus that drew these kinds of people to Him? I think we both know in general what it was. It's just very interesting that in each time this is related in the Gospels, it always says they WANTED to be around Jesus.

The other question is 2 fold & relates to ourselves...

As people who claim to follow Jesus & supposedly are trying to be like Him, is there so much of His personality & thinking at work in each of us that today's "notorious sinners" WANT to be around us?

AND (more importantly?) are we SO in tune to who & what Jesus is all about, & have we allowed Him to change who we are & the way we think, that we in turn WANT to be around such "notorious sinners" in our day & time?