“Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’” (Luke 15:1-2)
Jesus preached a couple of parables about the love of God for sinners and lost souls while in an assembly composed of 2 different groups. One group was composed of the religious elite, the Jewish religious leaders and their followers. These men were religious fundamentalists who claimed that their law keeping, their outward displays of piety and adherence to rituals and rules made them holy. They were proud of their ritual obedience and outward piety because they felt that God accepted them and they were superior to everyone else. They had no love in their hearts for God, their fellow Jews, and certainly not for the unclean Gentiles or sinners.
Such sinners in Jesus’ day were prostitutes, and tax collectors, men who were despised as traitors and thieves. These people the Pharisees despised and condemned composed the second group Jesus addressed. Such people came to the Pharisees leaders seeking God’s love, mercy, forgiveness but found only bondage to rules or outright rejection. These Pharisees felt it their right to condemn Jesus because they claimed He became unclean by associating with these sinners. But as we note from Jesus’ miracles, every unclean person He touched became clean. His holiness and love over made them whole
Today the sinners come in various forms: prostitutes, drug abusers, the sexually immoral, and homosexuals and all those others that many in the church tend to shun and condemn. These are all people with a great need for love which they seek to satisfy with lifestyles and perversions that never bring peace or comfort. Jesus took the time to associate with such people, to understand them and their needs. Although He never condoned sin, He almost always extended mercy, love, and forgiveness toward sinners, to lead them to repentance. Jesus received sinners and ate with them. So should we because we are those sinners. Grace and mercy are granted us not because of our good deeds or religious works, but because of God’s loving-kindness.