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JESUS CAME TO SEEK AND TO SAVE THE LOST
Luke 19:1-10
Key Verse: 10
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
There are many reasons that Jesus came into this world. In the gospel narratives, Jesus often stated the purpose of his coming to the world. For example, he said in Luke 5:32, “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” And in Matthew 20:28 he said, “Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”Paul affirms in 1 Timothy 1:15, “…Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.” The primary purpose of Jesus’ coming to the world is to call and save sinners by giving his life as a ransom sacrifice for their sins.
In today’s passage, Jesus again declares that he came to seek and to save the lost. The story in today’s passage is so beautiful and well known. It displays the purpose of Jesus’ coming to the world so clearly. As we study today’s passage, let us encounter Jesus once again very personally who came to seek and to save the lost.
First, Zacchaeus, a seeker (1-4)
Jesus was heading to Jerusalem to fulfill the prophecies of God to die on the cross in order to save sinners like us. He had walked all the way from Galilee and now he entered the city of Jericho and was passing through. He will reach Jerusalem by the end of this chapter.The city of Jericho, as M. Isaac last week briefly mentioned, was the city of Palms with its flourishing oasis. In Jesus’ time, Jericho was a stopping place for Galilean pilgrims to Jerusalem.
As Jesus entered the city with the huge crowd following him, he was met by a man there by the name of Zacchaeus. Who was Zacchaeus? He was a chief tax collector and was wealthy (2). As we well know tax collectors in Jesus’ times were hated and despised as traitors, public sinners or extortionists of large sum of money because they collected taxes from fellow Jews for the Roman Empire and because they made their living by charging an extra amount. Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector. In other words, he was a chief traitor, chief sinner and chief extortionist. He was really good at his job and became wealthy. He was a most hated man in Jericho.
Seemingly Zacchaeus was a most unlikely person to seek Jesus. But look at verses 3-4. “He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.”He wanted to see who Jesus was. Why? It was certain that he felt something core was missing in his life. Most probably, he talked tough, acted merciless and appeared well off in public, but when no one was around, but him and God, the truth sounded as loud in his soul as a blast of a thousand trumpets and painfully he saw he needed something he didn’t have. Until that time, Zacchaeus tried hard to keep that longing buried deep within. But as his life went on with the meaningless repetition of daily tasks and the next paycheck, his soul heard Solomon’s haunting words in his ears, “Meaningless! Meaningless!...Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” (Ecc 1:2). He reached the point that something should give and it was Jesus. Se he had a desire to see Jesus.He had a desperate need to get to Jesus. Who could imagine in the city that Zacchaeus, a notorious scum had a deep seated need to come to Jesus? But he had it and he wanted to see who Jesus was.
But before he could get to Jesus, he had a problem. He was a little short man and so could not see over the crowd. In the past, he never felt his short height was a problem. But for the first time, he felt that his short height was a fatal disadvantage. Tall and big people stood in his way and he saw only people’s tall back, but not Jesus. At that moment, his indomitable and never giving up spirit sprang up in him. He allowed nothing, not the crowd, not his short height stand between him and his desire to see Jesus. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him. This much, Zacchaeus was consumed with one longing desire to see Jesus.
Whether we admit or not, we all have this longing desire to see Jesus and to know him deeper and more personal. It is God-given desire to everyone, you and me. Some people try to fight it, ignore it or deny it, but our soul urges us to connect to the Lord. Lost people really need to see Jesus. We need to see Jesus. Steve Green sang, “Everyday they pass me by, I can see it in their eyes. Empty people filled with care, headed who know where?...When will we realize, people need the Lord?” Zacchaeus needed Jesus and so do we and so does a lost and dying world. God promises that every human heart that longs for God will find God. God says in Jeremiah 29:13, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”God wants his people to be seekers of him. With what kind of attitude? “With all your heart.”Moses said to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 4:29, “But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.” The scriptures promise that those who seek God with all their heart will find him.In other words, God blesses and comes to earnest seekers. In short, when we draw near to God, he reveals himself to us. God does not hide himself from the seeking heart.We must seek God through prayers, studying scriptures, worship and fellowship sincerely to find God and to see him. Our soul is longing for Jesus. But there are countless obstacles that hinder us and block our way to seek the Lord. In order to see Jesus, however, we must overcome external and internal obstacles as Zacchaeus overcame people who kept him from seeing Jesus and his short height by climbing the tree. A person’s spiritual down fall begins when he or she loses the desire to seek Jesus. Eventually, the person turns out to be nominal, humanistic and worldly. But those who seek God will confess as Paul did, “I want to know Christ!” and as Jeremy Camp sang, “Give me Jesus; Give me Jesus; you can have all this world; just give me Jesus.” Let us have master passion to seek God and find him.
Second, Jesus, the seeking Savior (5-10)
There was more than one person seeking something that day. Zacchaeus was seeking to see Jesus, but he thought that Jesus would not know him and his longing desire. But as the story unfolds we can clearly see that, Jesus was seeking Zacchaeus a lost one far more than Zacchaeus did. Look at verse 5. “When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him,‘Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.’”While Zacchaeus saw Jesus from the tree branch from a bird’s-eye-view, Jesus looked up and called him “Zacchaeus…” Zacchaeus thought that Jesus was calling someone else among several boys in the same tree, the boy that had the same name Zacchaeus. He looked around the tree and no one was there by that name, except himself. How did Jesus know his name? I don’t know. But one thing is certain that Jesus knew Zacchaeus. Jesus’ knowing his name meant a lot. Jesus knew his job, his friends, his house, his family,his life problem and most of all his longing heart to see Jesus. It is quite amazing to see that out of the crowd, Jesus focused on one person. Jesus’ calling is very personal. Zacchaeus was so amazed and surprised by Jesus’ calling that he could lose balance on the tree branch and almost fall to the ground.
Jesus then invited himself to Zacchaeus’ house, by saying, “I must stay at your house today.” Jesus wanted to be with him and have a fellowship with him. In other words, Jesus wanted to be a friend to him. So he was going after Zacchaeus. At that time, Jesus was foreseeing his upcoming trials and crucifixion. But in order to save him from his life of sin Jesus was willing to spend time with Zacchaeus and to have fellowship with him. Zacchaeus climbed the tree to see Jesus, but to call and save one wretched sinner Zacchaeus, Jesus came to Jericho and even to his house. Seeing Jesus visit his house, people muttered, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner” (7). Regardless of people’s misunderstanding and criticism, Jesus visited this wretched man and became a friend to him and won his soul back to God. When Jesus came to his house, what new decision did Zacchaeus make? Look at verse 8. “But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, ‘Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything,I will pay back four times the amount.’” What a practical and precise repentance and real change! What an authentic life changing decision! He made a decision like the chief. In the past, he served, followed and worshiped the money idol, but now he put money as his servant and means to love God and serve his neighbors. His decisions were so practical, workable. He knew that without these decisions he would remain as he had been. He was not like a rich ruler who walked away sad when Jesus asked him to let go of his wealth.
At this Jesus said to him in verse 9, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.”Through his repentance by faith in Jesus, Zacchaeus could be restored as a child of God, a son of Abraham and salvation came to him and his house. In the past, Zacchaeus was doomed to perish. But through his change and faith in Jesus, he was saved from the doom and became a son of Abraham. Moreover, he became a blessing to his household.
Look at verse 10. “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” This verse teaches us Jesus’ purpose in coming. In fact, it sums up the entire life and ministry of Jesus. First of all, Jesus is the seeking Savior. Jesus came from heaven in order to seek the lost. Jesus was like a mom who are desperately seeking for her missing child. He came seeking sinners everywhere; by Jacob’s well a Samaritan woman in the heat of the day, in the twilight cemetery a man possessed by many demons and in the public square a woman caught in the act of adultery. He came to seek sinners any time; at midnight Nicodemus whose heart was full of darkness, at his picnic spot hungry 5000 people and even at his dying hour on the cross, a notorious criminal. He came seeking blind beggars, lepers, fishermen, politicians, rioters, rich men, poor people, sick people and demon-possessed people. He even came seeking self-righteous religious leaders. He sought tax collectors, prostitutes, drunkards and criminals. Jesus came as the seeking Savior. Jesus came seeking even me and you, wretched sinners. Jesus came to seek someone lost. That was why Jesus spoke three parables in a row—the parable of the lost sheep, of the lost coin and of the lost son. He is still seeking for the lost.He pursues after the lost. If Christ is not the seeking Lord, all of us will perish. Thank Jesus who came to the world to seek sinners like us. Because of the seeking Lord, we still have hope and we come to him by faith.
Why then is Jesus seeking for the lost? He is seeking the lost to save them. Jesus hung out with numerous people, but his purpose was to save them. In short, he sought for the lost in order to save them. For Jesus, saving the lost was his prime purpose and his death on the cross was the prime means.
Now who are the lost? Let’s think about the meaning of being lost. Once in a while I saw very little children in a busy shopping mall who wandered away from their mom and dad. These children became frantic because they could not see their mom and dad. In fear they cried, saying, “Mommy…Daddy…Where are you? When you imagine these little childrenyou can really understand the meaning of being lost.We are all like that. We wandered away from our Father God and didn’t know where we are. Isaiah 53:6 depicts us realistically, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way…” By nature, we all go our own way. No one has to teach us how to run from God. We were born running away from God. We all want to do our own thing. We all go our own way. We don’t even recognize we are lost until Jesus out of compassion and mercy on us comes to seek us and to save us. If Christ didn’t come to us, you and I would never come to him. So if we are lost without Jesus, we are lost without hope. What then is our hope if we are so hopelessly lost? We must see Jesus who is seeking us to save us. We must get the words of Jesus who came to seek and save the lost. Let us look into ourselves and see who we are. If we think we are lost, then we are excellent candidates for being saved by Jesus who came to seek and save the lost.
Today we learn about our Lord who is the seeking Savior for the lost. Christ Jesus is seeking for sinners like us. After seeking for the perishable earthly things, Zacchaeus like the lost children in the shopping mall began to seek the Lord. Finally, Jesus found Zech and Zech was saved. May we restore and keep the holy desire to seek and see Jesus. Let us also participate in Jesus’ seeking ministry for the lost.