The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!
Jesus is speaking to a crowd and drawing a deliberate comparison between himself and John the Baptist — two very different men with very different approaches to ministry. John the Baptist lived an austere life in the desert, fasting and abstaining from wine, and the religious leaders dismissed him as demon-possessed. Jesus, by contrast, went to dinners and celebrations, sitting at tables with people society had written off: tax collectors (Jews who collected taxes for the occupying Roman government, widely despised as traitors and thieves) and people labeled "sinners" (those considered morally disreputable by religious standards). For this, he was called a glutton and a drunk. Jesus is exposing a pattern: the religious establishment had decided in advance to reject both him and John, no matter what either of them did.
Jesus, you ate with people everyone else avoided — and you didn't apologize for it. Give me that same willingness to sit down with people I might normally walk past. Forgive me for the times that reputation and appearances have quietly kept me from real connection. Amen.
Imagine finding fault with a man for eating too little — and then turning around and criticizing another man for eating with the wrong people. That's the logic Jesus is holding up to the light here. The complaints weren't really about food or wine. They were about power and control — who gets to decide who belongs, who's clean, who matters. What gets me is the accusation Jesus didn't push back against: a friend of tax collectors and "sinners." He wore it. He sat at those tables deliberately, and he knew exactly what people were saying about him when he did. The question for you isn't whether you would have joined him at one of those dinners in first-century Galilee. It's whether you're currently eating at tables with people the respectable crowd has written off — and whether you're genuinely okay with what that costs you.
What does it tell you about Jesus' priorities that the most cutting accusation his critics could land on was that he ate and drank with the wrong people?
Think about someone in your own life that others might consider a "bad influence" or simply beneath notice — how do you treat them, especially when others are watching?
The religious leaders rejected both John's extreme fasting and Jesus' table fellowship. What does this pattern suggest about how religious standards can sometimes be used to avoid genuine challenge rather than pursue genuine truth?
Who are the modern equivalents of tax collectors and "sinners" in your community — people others have quietly written off? How often does your actual daily life intersect with theirs?
What is one concrete step you could take this week to extend real friendship to someone on the margins of your social or religious world?
He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried.
Numbers 6:3
The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.
Matthew 11:19
And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage.
John 2:2
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake .
Matthew 5:11
When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach.
Psalms 69:10
And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched him.
Luke 14:1
And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee's house, and sat down to meat.
Luke 7:36
And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.
Matthew 12:32
The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, 'Look, a man who is a glutton and a [heavy] wine-drinker, a friend of tax collectors and sinners [including non-observant Jews].'
AMP
The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’
ESV
'The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, 'Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!'
NASB
The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.”’
NIV
The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’
NKJV
The Son of Man, on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, ‘He’s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’
NLT
The Son of Man came feasting and you called him a lush.
MSG