Why was it that so many outcast and downtrodden types came to Jesus when he was here

Why was it that so many outcast and downtrodden types came to Jesus when he was here? It's simple really. They felt loved by him, and they felt that way because they WERE loved by him. People like the woman who washed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair weren't very accustomed to feeling cared about by those around them (Lk. 7:37-39). For instance, the religious crowd that was there when she did that certainly had no love for her. All they could think about was why was it that this supposed prophet was allowing a worthless woman like that to do this with him. They didn't get it, and they didn't get it because they did not know God. The scripture says quite clearly, "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love" (I Jn. 4:8). Yes, God is indeed love, and Jesus came here in the fullness of God's nature to give that love to everyone around him. Those who felt they knew 'the way' didn't feel the need for what he brought, and therefore they failed to recognize that he WAS 'the way' (Jn. 14:6). But those whose hearts wanted and needed to be loved fell in love with him because he WAS the love they were looking for. He still is. It's simply a matter of whether we're already 'full' of something that we're satisfied to be dissatisfied with, or whether we know we are needy and hungry, and in need of that one element which alone truly satisfies the heart and soul (Mat. 5:3-6). It is usually someone who is down and out that has enough of an awareness of that to want to do something about it. Something like give themselves to Jesus so that he will fill them with his love and peace.

Jesus isn't here on earth anymore, so now that love has to come through those who believe on him, so that the hungry and the needy will feel loved like they did by Jesus when he was here. It is those who truly love him and possess his love within themselves that manifest and distribute that love now. And it is still mainly the downtrodden and outcasts who take to that love. So if we really want to be like Jesus then we need to keep ourselves filled with his love, and be happy to be with the poor and the 'undesirables' of this life; because that is who is usually going to smell the 'sweet savor' of Jesus when it's there to be smelled (Eph. 5:1,2). Those who are too full of something else are not going to be interested in the love of Jesus, so be prepared to be mocked and ridiculed by them even as Jesus was (Lk. 6:25; Jn. 15:17-19). I count it a grand privilege indeed that it is the downtrodden and outcasts that usually end up around me. Not only so, but it is an equal privilege that the 'full' religious crowd would rather be somewhere else around something else than the genuine love of God that Jesus preserves in me. God's love is really all I care about, and giving it to those in need is a privilege and a pleasure beyond what I'm able to describe. It all begins and ends with the love of God, and I wouldn't have it any other way. It was that love that brought me to Christ, and it is that love in me that brings others in my path to him today. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved" (Jn. 3:16,17). It just doesn't get any better than that. Amen.