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 guests 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.”

Why do I always share this incident every time I read it in my sequential readings each day?

I do it because it begs 2 questions...

Obviously, these people who were considered "scum" wanted to be around Jesus.

And Jesus obviously wanted to be around them.

The 2 questions are simple...

Are we so filled with the spirit of Jesus that people considered "scum" in our culture want to be around us?

And have we let Jesus transform us to the point that we want to be around scum?