Luke 15:2

διεγόγγυζον. ‘Were loudly murmuring’ (Luke 19:7; Joshua 9:18). “With arid heart they blame the very Fount of Mercy,” Gregory the Great. In all ages it had been their sin that they ‘sought not the lost.’ Ezekiel 34:4.

οἵ τε Φαρισαῖοι καὶ οἱ γραμματεῖς. See Excursus VI.

καὶ συνεσθίει αὐτοῖς. He not only gives them a genial welcome (προσδέχεται) but publicly recognises them. They found in Him none of the bitter contempt to which they were accustomed from the ‘religious authorities’ of Palestine. Even their touch was regarded as unclean by the Pharisees. But our Lord, who read the heart, knew that the religious professors were often the worse sinners before God, and He associated with sinners that He might save them. “Ideo secutus est … usque ad mensam, ubi maxime peccatur.” Bengel. It is this yearning of redemptive love which finds its richest illustration in these three parables. They contain the very essence of the Glad Tidings, and two of them are peculiar to St Luke.