Why do you eat and drink with such scum?

Today I was reading a Facebook status about someone's atheist friend. I do know that anytime a person that is a Christian claims to have a friend outside the faith it will cause discussions. Some of the discussion is good and healthy dialogue. On the other hand you will see some that is not. I often wonder why we as Christians are so afraid to sit down and dialogue with others. Is it that we are afraid we will disappoint God? Is it that we are afraid of what others might say? Do we think it is our job to point out their sin and tell them to repent? Do we think that if we associate with them we are sinning ourselves? I really don't know the answer. I decided to post an example in scripture and let God's word do the talking:

Luke 5:27-32
²⁷ Later, as Jesus left the town, he saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. ²⁸ So Levi got up, left everything, and followed him. ²⁹ Later, Levi held a banquet in his home with Jesus as the guest of honor. Many of Levi’s fellow tax collectors and other guests also ate with them. ³⁰ But the Pharisees and their teachers of religious law complained bitterly to Jesus’ disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with such scum?” ³¹ Jesus answered them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. ³² I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.”

Tax collectors in their days were considered sinners. Apparently the Pharisees didn't associate with them because of their sinful lives. Seeing Jesus in this passage opens a portal to the heart of God. Jesus was willing to be called names, spit on, mocked, degraded and much more just to sit down and converse with sinners. That to me speaks volumes about how I should present the Gospel to others. After all what if Jesus said, "Why do I eat with such scum?" That statement in itself would show our hopelessness. Instead he was willing to endure a cross for our sake so that we could be pulled out of the pit of scum and cleansed.