Mark 2:15-17 (NIV):  While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.  When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the “sinners” and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”
On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Jesus scandalized the “good church folks” of His day by intentionally associating with tax collectors and sinners, people with whom no “decent” person would ever be seen.  The pious who hung around Jesus believed that those foul people were spiritually unclean, and that their uncleanness could rub off on them – a kind of “spiritual cooties.”  And so they shunned such people, avoiding any physical contact, or even social contact.

But here was Jesus, arguably a holy man, perhaps even a prophet, and He was actually in the house of one of them – a house that was now full to the rafters with sinners!  And He was eating with them, talking with them, even laughing with them as if they were regular people!  They couldn’t believe it.

Jesus had many people who followed Him.  A lot of them were His regular disciples.  A few were occasional followers or thrill seekers, who mostly wanted to be where the action was.  But they were all in and around Levi’s house, eating and drinking, and listening to Jesus.

This was all more than some of the teachers of the law could stand.  There was no way that they were going to contaminate themselves by actually going into Levi’s house to confront Jesus about this unseemly behavior.  But some of His disciples were hanging around outside, so they buttonholed a couple of them:  “Why does he eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?  He’s supposed to be holy!  Doesn’t He realize that hanging out with those people could corrupt Him?  He needs to keep His distance, and just let those people sink from their own weight without letting them drag Him down with them!”

They didn’t realize how loud they had gotten, or how good Jesus’ ears were.  He heard them and turned toward the door where His disciples were trying to figure out how to answer these men.  His answer was short, but directly to the point:  “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

That’s it precisely!  Jesus hung out with sinners not because He craved their company, or, as some people teach, because He found them more “genuine and real” than the Pharisees.  He hung out with them because they were the ones who needed His forgiveness, His salvation.  They did not respond to His teaching with hostility and accusations, but they drank in everything that He said like cool water of life, gratefully listening and responding.  There was no use preaching salvation to those who believed themselves to be holy; there was nothing in them that would respond positively to Jesus’ teachings.  So He went as a physician to those who were sin-sick, and they received what He brought them with great joy.

Even today many of God’s people stay away from those who need the good news the most.  Statistics say that within 5 years of becoming a Christian, the vast majority of us have no close non-Christian friends that we spend lots of time with.  But even though we have a lot in common with people who are already saved, they are not the ones who are most in need of the gospel that we know, and have experienced, and can share.

Father, I agree.  It is sad how little sharing of the good news we do with those most in need of it.  We share our story, our answered prayers, our insights into Scripture, and our testimonies with those how have already been forgiven, when all around us are those sin-sick souls who need so badly the healing balm of the gospel.  Help us, Lord, to follow Jesus in this, too.  To prefer the company of sinners in order to save them, to purposefully spend time with those who need forgiveness so that we can show them where to find it.  Then, when we all get together as Your Church, we will really have something to celebrate!  Amen.