Why eat with such scum?

Thank you.

great portion of scripture which supports evangelism, either by witnessing or showing your faith outwardly by how you conduct yourself and deny the sin of the world. Christ would most certainly be doing both.

Matthew 7:2-5

Agallagher said:

Luke Chapter 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.”

Can you see how the religious leaders looked and responded at the banquet? They were condescending to others. They thought they were righteous, by judging others.

Can you see how Jesus handled the situation? He expressed that it is the Pharisee that need to change their mind about the situation by pointing out the sin of not loving others.
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I thought Levi and Matthew might be the same person. Matthew 9:9-17

The tax collectors in Herod’s jurisdiction were called publicans. They bid on contracts to collect taxes.

I like especially Luke 19 v 10 in the story of Zacchaeus. Then we have Luke 5 v 31, which speaks of the same thing. We learn that, Christ had come to reconcile us with the Father.

19
New International Version

Zacchaeus the Tax Collector
1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.”6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”

8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”