F. F. Bruce on Mark 2:17

"I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." (Mark 2:17)
"Nineteen centuries and more Gospel preaching and New Testament reading, have familiarised us with the idea that Jesus's ministry was specifically directed at sinners. Not simply to sinners in the sense in which most people will admit 'we are all sinners', but sinners in the sense that their lives offended the accepted moral code of their community."

F. F. Bruce - "The Hard Saying of Jesus" - London (1983) (Chapter 1)