Luke 15
When the gospels say Jesus was hanging out with "sinners", I always wonder who these people are. Not tax collectors, nor Pharisees, but ... who? However with the Pharisees one does sometimes wonder if they should be counted as sinners - especially with the ones appearing in this chapter. I'm surprised that Jesus implies that they are 'righteous' in verse 7. Maybe by the end of the chapter they had accepted Jesus parables and decided he was right.
In a parable of the Lost Son, we never do find out if the older brother joined the party. In a way, he was also a prodigal - acting like the Pharisees at the start of the chapter. We can find people like this in some churches - trying to decide who is in / out. Ignore them. God welcomes everyone - including sinners.
@daveburb Who were the "sinners"? Good question. Especially with how nitpicky the Pharisees are, there could be whole swathes of people that they considered to be sinners. I'd just kind of assumed that they were the "obvious" sinners, like harlots and drunkards and beggars, but who knows?
You're surprised that Jesus implies that the Pharisees are righteous? Dunno, I think it was merely taken as a given that the Pharisees *assumed* that they were righteous. And the point that Jesus was making is that it is the unrighteous who need the attention - just as elsewhere Jesus said it is the sick who need a doctor, not those who are well.
DaveB
Kerr Avonsen (she/her)