why does jesus eat with sinners?

In sixth grade, my teacher, Mr. Mullen, pulled me aside after a chaotic day in class. My friend Derrick had been kicked out, J.J. was sent to the corner, and I had earned silent lunch—and maybe even in-school suspension. Exhausted, he looked at me and said something simple but powerful:

“Adei, if you straighten up, your friends will follow you.”

At the time, I didn’t fully understand. I thought we were just having fun. But looking back, I see it clearly—we were influencing each other. When one of us talked, the others joined in. When one acted up, the rest followed. And if one of us had chosen to do right, the others likely would have too.

Mr. Mullen was showing me this: the same influence I used to lead my friends into trouble could be used to lead them into something good.

We see this truth in Mark 2:13–17. After Jesus calls Levi, a tax collector, to follow Him, He ends up at Levi’s house for dinner. And who shows up? “Many tax collectors and sinners… for there were many who followed him” (Mark 2:15).

Who were these “many”? They were Levi’s people.

Levi used the same influence he once had to surround himself with sinners to now bring those same people to sit at a table with Jesus.

That’s the beauty of the gospel.

Jesus doesn’t ask us to clean up everything before coming to Him. He invites us to bring it all—our past, our flaws, even the people around us—to Him. He came not for the perfect, but for sinners and their friends.

We often ask, “Does Jesus really want someone like me?”

The answer is yes!

And not only you—He wants the people connected to you too.

The same influence you’ve had in the wrong direction can be redeemed for the right one. So don’t leave those people in the rearview mirror. Bring them to the table.

Because the same Jesus who is ready to redeemed you is also ready to redeem them. He the God who has come for the sinner