They all complained when they saw what was happening.
“He (Jesus) has gone to stay at a sinner’s house,” they said.
One of the lovely features of the Gospels is that Jesus had no problem with what we would call sinners.
He didn’t condone what they did but he had great compassion for them.
The other side of that feature was that he had a lot of difficulty with good people.
And he still has!
He found it almost impossible to break through to them with the Good News of God’s unconditional love for every person because, if they were God, they would not be like that.
So, as we struggle to live out our faith through the various relationships of our lives we need to be ready for failure and be gentle with ourselves.
But we also need to be very gentle with one another and become a source of encouragement for one another rather than putting one another down through criticism.
