Why was our Lord Jesus called “a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (Matt. 11:19)?

The Word of God was incarnate to heal the souls wounded by sin. He has compassion on them for He is the loving physician who opened the gates of Paradise to a thief who was counted unworthy of living in the world (Luke 23:34) and accepted a sinful woman who was about to be stoned to death (John 8:1–12). He invited Himself into the house of a cold-hearted chief publican and a lover of money, even though the multitudes complained against Him (Luke 19:5). He knows how sin humiliates humanity and therefore, He is compassionate with sinners. He neither reproaches nor rebukes any broken heart, “He will not quarrel nor cry out, nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench” (Matt. 12:19–20).

He stands and knocks at the doors of our hearts, that we may also be compassionate towards Him and offer Him the heart which He purchased with His blood and even if we do not offer Him what He actually owns; He never forces Himself in, but stands outside weeping as He did when He entered Jerusalem (Luke 19:41). In sweetness, He calls the soul “My sister, my love,” and then He encourages her, revealing her inner beauty by saying, “O My perfect one” (Song. 5:2). He encourages the souls of the broken despite their defilement and evil.

As much as the Lord’s sermons and parables — in public and in secret — revolved around the Kingdom, He emphasized the need for repentance and that we cannot approach Kingdom without repentance. And as much as He was tenderhearted and kind to repentant sinners, He seemed harsh with the cruel hearts of those who were unwilling to repent. He was generous with the sinners, adulterers, and thieves because they were eager to repent, but scolded and rebuked the Scribes and Pharisees who insisted in their stubbornness not to repent.

It is important for us not to despise His love and longsuffering and hence be lax with sin, relying on the fact that the Savior is the Lover of humanity and the Forgiver of sins, as St. Paul says, “Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” (Rom. 2:4). St. Basil the Great says, “he who has been chastised for his past sins and has obtained pardon prepares for himself a judgment of wrath more severe than the former judgment if he sin again … ‘See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you’ (John 5:14).”¹⁴³⁷

1437 St. Basil of Caesarea, The Morals 11.2 (FOTC 9:87).