He preached to sinners of all kind, hated tax collectors and Samaritans, and all who would listen to and act on His teachings.
Like the Samaritan woman He met at Jacob's well:
Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.
7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)
9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?
12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?
13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.
16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.
17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:
18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.
19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. John 4:6-25
Jesus said He came to call sinners to repentance not the righteous since they were already on the path. Jesus wanted to gather His lost sheep.
Jesus also preached using many parables one of which He used to make an enemy of the Hews into a hero in His parable to redeem the image of this enemy and prove that any member of any group can be righteous.
In the way that Schindler, a Nazi, still did much good despite being a Nazi officer. The Good Samaritan did the righteous thing in Jesus' parable.
Jesus did more than just preach to sinners, He invited them into His inner circle.
Many of the twelve Apostles were lowly sinners who were considered by the religious elite to be unworthy of God's love and approval.
Simon the zealot was a hard liner who believed in military action against the Romans and the religious elite who were allowing the Roman occupation and even facilitated it.
Yet Jesus molded him into a righteous man.
Simon Peter was just a fisherman with no obvious leadership skills yet Hesus chose him to be the foundation on which He would build His church.
Matthew was a tax collector, who robbed the poor to give to the Romans, yet he was humble and may have been the inspiration of a parable set at the Temple:
Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.
11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Luke 18:10-14
So though some may say we are not worthy Jesus seemed to show us otherwise. The paths of our lives shape us into what we are called to be, we can accept that and learn from these things or we can fight it.
But to fight our destiny is like swimming upstream, we will wear ourselves out and eventually go down stream where we were always meant to go. We have our agency to refuse the call.
But to accept the call as Jesus accepts us flaws, sins and all is to be who we were meant to be.
Jesus will meet us wherever we're at and He will guide us from there. He did that for all He ministered to and for all those He invited into His inner circle so why would He do any differently for us?
