Luke 15:1

ἦσαν δὲ αὐτῷ ἐγγίζοντες πάντες οἱ τελῶναι καὶ οἱ ἁμαρτωλοὶ�. ‘And there were drawing near to Him all the tax-gatherers and the sinners to listen to Him.’ The ἦσαν ἐγγίζοντες seems to imply that group after group of these neglected classes approached Him. St Chrysostom says that their very life was legalised sin and specious greed. On the publicans, see Luke 3:12; Luke 5:27. ‘The sinners’ mean in general the degraded and outcast classes. See Introd. and Wordsworth, ad loc. The three parables which follow are essentially parables of grace, and their main thought is illustrated in the discourse about the Good Shepherd and His other sheep not of this fold, in John 10:1-18.