Day 2
Jesus’
Mission: the lost
Read: Luke 19:1-10
Many
of the people of Jesus’ day didn’t understand what Jesus was on about. They thought he should only associate with
people who were “good” – people who outwardly conformed to their standard
religious expectations. They expected
his mission should focus on meeting “religious needs.”
Jesus continually did things that
contradicted such expectations; the story of Zacchaeus is a classic
example. He was a tax collector working for
the Romans. Men like him were despised as traitors; they were “agents” of the
military occupiers of Israel’s land.
Many Jews just never associated with them, seeing them as beyond any
hope of redemption.
Yet
here we read Jesus intentionally stopped and took the initiative to spend time
with Zacchaeus. He knew his name and he
knew that he was searching for something.
Jesus was not put-off, either by his “reputation” or by what others might
think.
Luke
explains this story by clearly setting out why Jesus came (v10). His focus was on those who were “lost.” Many Bible scholars see this as the
central verse of Luke’s Goodnews account. Alternatively, putting this in today’s
context, Jesus’ mission focuses on those outside the faith, not those in
it. Such action is a challenge to curb
any self-centred desire of keeping Jesus for ourselves, and motivation to
having passion for connecting with “those outside.”
Ponder
Point (reflect)
- Jesus is
passionate about connecting with the lost
Consider
(respond)
- Which of those that don’t yet know God can I plan to connect with?
My post-reading-ponder this morning . . . “Being lost and knowing it, is the first step towards the experience of being found.”
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ReplyDeleteThis is great!
ReplyDeleteI love how Jesus took that person who was alienated from the crowd and engaged with him.
It is such a risk for us to play "Christian" and go along to church, do our God thing every Sunday and create the scenario from today's passage over and over again.
I ask myself what can I do at church to engage those who are far from God, to stop playing church and do what Jesus illustrated here. What can I do for those who are alienated and isolated from what is common or acceptable in the Church environment and meet them where they are at. How can I encourage them down out of their tree.