Luke 19:7
Luke 19:77And all who saw this began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinful man!”
JWs handle this verse the same way they handle other meals Jesus shared with sinners — as evangelism. The crowd's complaint that Jesus has "gone in to lodge with a man who is a sinner" is read as proof of the social cost Jesus willingly paid to reach the lost, not as a description of friendship. The Watchtower's categorical separation from non-Witnesses remains intact in this framing, because the meal is reframed as ministry to a sinner rather than fellowship with one.
The Greek verb is katalysai — to "lodge with" or "be a guest in the house of" — and Luke chooses it deliberately. Jesus did not give Zacchaeus a sermon and move on; he stayed under his roof, ate at his table, and accepted his hospitality. The crowd's complaint is the hinge: they call Zacchaeus "a man who is a sinner" precisely because they understand exactly what Jesus is doing — entering into the social bond that hospitality created in the ancient world. The crowd's complaint sounds remarkably like the Watchtower's warning about "bad associations." Jesus' response in vv.9-10 owns the bond: "today salvation has come to this house... the Son of Man came to seek and save what is lost." The lost are reached through hospitality, not through structural distance from them.