Jesus Came to Seek and Save the Lost

Jesus came to seek and save the lost.

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” –Luke 19:10

These stunning words roll off the lips of one who called Himself the “Son of Man”. But they are spoken to those who would never want to admit they ever strayed. We refuse to consider ourselves lost, unable to find our way back to righteous places. Our fallen hearts believe we are right, and that we know how to be right.

What about these words spoken by Jesus to a despised tax collector? They had few friends among the Jews, who thought of them as traitors who filled Rome’s pockets while living among their brothers. Zacchaeus possibly exacted extra taxes or tolls along the Jericho trade route, but his greed and fraud prove his broken relationship with God.

What about the onlookers? What about people who grumbled at the association of a rabbi toward a man with a rough reputation? His actions strained against every righteous practice in their eyes. The truth is that all of us clearly fit the pattern of both people. We fit in the camp of the unrighteous, and we fit in the camp of the self-righteous. Either place is one where we can never find our way back, unless Jesus seeks us.

Jesus, the seeker, cast His gaze on a man with no basis or reason to ever be found. Like a sheep that strayed, or a coin that rolled away (Luke 15), He seeks those hidden from human sight. Yet another word in Jesus’ expression holds even greater hope for us! He does not shame those He finds, He lovingly saves them! Like stray sheep and lost coins, He restores them to rightful places for glorious reasons. Jesus, seeker and saver, works with celebration in mind, where the formerly lost and newly found rejoice together with Him!