None the less our Lord never backed down. He knew that because of the cross sinners could approach the holy One. Only if through the holy One Incarnate they knew a welcome beyond anything they had found anywhere else. They found such a welcome in the one from Nazareth and loved him for it. It is a social convention to classify people as successful or dismissible, religious or irreligious.
Social conventions have their place.
Jesus eats with the dismissible, those deemed unimportant. He would gladly eat with the successful, the powerful, too, but they don't want to rub shoulders with the dismissible. He eats as well with the irreligious. He would gladly eat with the religious too, but they can't stomach the thought that their reward is no greater than the reward of those who have made no religious effort at all. Social conventions are a way of ordering society.