We get the series of lost parables, capped by the one we call the Prodigal Son, after Jesus has been hanging out with tax collectors and sinners, which the Pharisees take issue with and question his bona fides. Because everyone knows that a Hebrew avoids these people — especially a rabbi. So Jesus is clearly mistaken. He needs to be reminded about the right behavior and corrected. But Jesus clearly doesn’t think that is necessary.

These parables, which connect with ideas of forgiveness and searching and finding, are also stories which each end in celebration. So doesn’t it track then that the eating, the others treat as forbidden, is the necessary response to finding what is lost, in revealing the mercy of God? And even further, is it not right to honor and celebrate here and now wit those who are found, to those who are returned, those who God seeks to love? Isn’t that our real job anyway?