… Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ’sinners’?” (Matthew 9:11)
Evidently Jesus hung out with a bad crowd.
We know that because the super-religious types found it offensive. One translation catches the flavor this way:
“Why does your teacher eat with such scum?” (NLT)
There are many ways to answer that question . . . .
Because he loved them.Because they knew he cared for them.Because he knew they weren’t really scum.
And maybe this is the deepest reason . . .
Because the professional religionists wanted nothing to do with him. Prostitutes and tax collectors got along just fine with Jesus because he knew what they were and he loved them anyway. He enjoyed their company, laughed with them, listened to them, and made himself available to them.