Charles Spurgeon Commentary Luke 19:7

"And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, He is gone in to lodge with a man that is a sinner." — Luke 19:7 (ASV)

Saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner.

I do not know where else he could have gone, for they were all sinners; but they meant that this tax-gatherer was "a sinner" by public reputation. He was an excommunicated person, who was regarded by everybody as "a sinner" in a very special sense.

And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner.

I wonder where he could have gone and not been a guest with a man who was a sinner; but Zacchaeus was thought to be a sinner beyond ordinary sinners. Our Lord still loves to be the guest of a man who is a sinner; he still wants a place where he can stay.

O man, you who are a sinner, ask him home with you! O woman, you who are in your very trade a sinner, ask him home with you, and we will say again, not murmuringly, but joyfully, "He has gone to be guest with one who is a sinner."

Saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner.

If he had not done so, he could not have gone anywhere, for all men are sinners. All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. But this man was a sinner above others, for he had sold himself to the hated Roman power, and was authorized to collect the conqueror's taxes from his own people; so, of course, in the estimation of the Jews, he was the worst kind of sinner that could be found anywhere.