Levi had invited his friends to meet Jesus. Levi’s friends, of course, were probably fellow tax collectors and others who were commonly called “sinners.” These “sinners” were the “Am har aretz” in Aramaic, or the “people of the land.” These people were the majority of the Jews who did not follow the Pharisaic interpretations of the law, especially ceremonial cleaning (Mark 7:1f). The fact that they were ceremonially unclean made them sinners. We need to understand that Jesus was in the middle of