2 verses

Luke 15 

1 Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. 

2 This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain 

that he was associating with such sinful people...

...even eating with them!

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Tax collectors back then were utterly despised by the Jews. They were collaborators with the Romans! They also robbed the Jews by overcharging them in their taxes. Tax collectors were usually filthy rich. The Jews hated them, & expressed that hatred at them in public all the time.

Tax collectors were rich but were social outcasts.

There is no attempt anywhere in the Gospels to define what a "notorious sinner" was. I think we could all make a significant list of who that might have been. But people back then who were blatant "sinners" were just about as reviled & hated by the Jews as were tax collectors, although tax collectors were at the top of the list. They were all social outcasts, & were often attacked on the streets.

But Luke mentions that these social outcasts, these people who lived in fear of their own safety or their own lives, came out in public to see Jesus & hear what He had to say. I'm sure these "sinners" were treated badly by the other regular people who had come to see & hear Jesus. But Luke says these notorious sinners "often" came to see & hear Jesus.

Obviously, there was something about Jesus that compelled these sinners to take the risk & come see & hear Him.

And Jesus' connection with them went to the extent of Him actually sitting down with them & eating with them. This communicated a level of connection few of them probably had expected. It probably conveyed an amount acceptance that notorious sinners seldom received.

Can you imagine what it must have felt like for rich, crooked, collaborating tax collectors & really yucky "sinners" to sit down with Jesus at a meal, & have Jesus treat them as well as He surely must have?

It also comes as no surprise that the Pharisees & teachers of religious law were all bent out of shape about all this. Arrogant, self-righteous jackasses like them have always been a boil on the butt of everyone for time immemorial.

But here's the thing...

Obviously, there was something about Jesus that drew people to Him, even notorious sinners.

We fancy ourselves to be followers of Jesus, trying to be more like Him as we live from day to day.

Then there are 2 questions that we must ask ourselves honestly...

Is there enough of the spirit & mind of Jesus so filling us that the notorious sinners of today WANT to be around us?

And maybe more importantly, is there a sufficient amount of Jesus in our hearts & minds that we WANT to be around notorious sinners?

Think about that...