“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” Luke 19:10
I am constantly challenged to not lose sight of the purpose of Christ’s encounter with humanity. Scriptures like the one quoted above seem to clearly and implicitly portray the mission of Jesus. Yet for those of us who follow, we get blindsided, more often than not by the mechanisms of a religious lifestyle and the attached accessories, resulting in a religion that is predominantly about us and far from Christ’s mission.
It’s all too easy to get trapped into a church mentality, where our lives tend to revolve around what happens within the 4 walls of a church, resulting in a narrowing introspective viewpoint. This is the scenario we see in the preceding verses of Luke 19. The religious of the day had a preconceived understanding about what could and couldn’t be done. The religious leaders of the day were particularly put out by Jesus and his willingness to associate himself with the less than acceptable among the community. For Jesus to sit with a sinner, as a guest in his house, left complaining judgmental rumblings on the lips of the religious community. Yet that encounter with Zacchaeus caused a transformation in his life and family. It took a radical approach by Jesus, it went against the grain of religious expectations, yet it resulted in Salvation!
Jesus didn’t allow himself to get bogged down in the politics and the judgmental pressures of the religious He didn’t sink himself into the task of arguing His case. He simply went about making a difference to all He encountered on his redemptive journey. He didn’t stay within the confines of the synagogue or church, He went out into the community touching people where they were. His message was never one of judgement or rejection because of the way people lived. His message was one of freedom, life, faith, mercy, grace, forgiveness, wholeness, love and acceptance. The religious community on the other hand built distinct and definitive walls that rejected, repressed, condemned and ultimately allowed the religious to not even see those that so desperately needed the touch of God in their lives.
When we become so self absorbed in what we are doing that we no longer see the needs of others, that is tragic. It happens so easily and it is one of the greatest obstacles that we have to overcome if we are going to reach out and sit with sinners, seeing their lives transformed by the power of God, manifest through the presence of the Holy Spirit. If we become consumed with trying to get our Christianity right rather than accepting the gift of Christ and His righteousness, we will quickly lose sight of the mission of Christ and take our hand off the plough of taking the gift of His Salvation to those who so desperately need a Jesus touch.
Dear friends won’t you look around you today? Look at your family your friends, your neighbours and your community and stop seeing the sin and the problems and start seeing the opportunities. Start to see a Zacchaeus that can be transformed. Remember the “...Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost...”
May you see with new eyes and be compelled by Christ’s heart that none should perish - in Jesus Name.
Jeffrey