‘Now all the public servants and sinners were drawing near to him to hear him.'
Gathered in the crowds around Jesus were large numbers of public servants and ‘sinners'. The ‘public servants were those who served the Romans in one way or another, either under Herod or under Pilate, both of whom represented Rome. They would include a large number of tax and toll collectors, men, often brutal men, who had taken advantage of the system to enrich themselves, and they would be as unwelcome to the sinners as they were to the Pharisees. We must not just ignore the truth about them. The ‘sinners' were those who did not in Pharisaic eyes sufficiently follow the laws of cleanness and uncleanness, the laws of tithing, and so on. They would include those guilty of all kinds of sins, some mild, others more serious. But all shared one common position. They were despised by the Pharisees. Yet their presence here indicated that in their hearts there was a desire for the truth, and a recognition that their present lives were unsatisfactory. Jesus welcomed them as those who were seeking to change, not as those who would stay as they were. And while to the Pharisees their presence was an offence, to Heaven it was a joy.
‘Were drawing near.' The verb is used similarly of crowds in Matthew 15:8, and the tense probably indicates their continual drawing near over a period of time. It was during this period of regular association with the crowds that the Pharisees and Scribes began to mouth their criticisms.
‘To hear Him.' This suggests a certain attentiveness about their listening, (compare Luke 14:35). They were listening, ‘the Pharisees and Scribes' (for the order compare Luke 5:30; Mark 7:1; Mark 7:5; Matthew 15:1) were not. This idea of listening is important in Luke, see Luke 5:1; Luke 5:15; Luke 6:17; Luke 6:27; Luke 6:47; Luke 6:49; Luke 7:29; Luke 8:8-18; Luke 8:21; Luke 9:35; Luke 10:16; Luke 10:24; Luke 10:39; Luke 11:28; Luke 11:31. He wants us to know that it is important that we genuinely ‘hear'.