“And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.’ So he hurried and came down and received Him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, ‘He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.’ And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, ‘Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.’ and Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:5-10
Devotional Thought For The Day
There are two things that we should remember when thinking about this incident. Obviously, Jesus came “to seek and to save the lost,” that is, to save and rescue sinners. If we want to have relationship with Jesus, then we must acknowledge what the fall into sin has done to us, that we are precisely the “sinners” that Jesus came to save. This is the only pleasant and gentle interface that Jesus has with human beings, when we are willing to honestly confront and repent of our sins and allow Him to be our Savior. Likewise, as we rejoice to know and believe the redeeming and renewing love that God has for us in Christ Jesus, we must remember that Jesus also came to save other sinners. Jesus wasn’t the only one who went “to be the guest of a man who is a sinner” – He was leading His disciples, and no doubt they accompanied Him. So, one could also accuse Jesus of leading His disciples into the homes of those who are sinners. But this is precisely His mission, and the mission which He has given to His disciples to this day.
Just so, Jesus has brought us into the fellowship of the church, and since the church is populated by human beings, of whom the Scripture says “there is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not” [Eccl. 7:20], it could be said that Jesus brings us into a fellowship of “sinners.” Now the term “sinner” can be used in two different senses, and is used this way in Scripture. The first sense describes all of us, that because “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” [Rom. 3:23] it can truthfully be said of all of us that we are sinners. The other sense denotes those who are oriented toward and committed to continuous sinning, who have no repentance, no remorse for their sin, and no desire whatsoever to abstain from it. These are the impenitent and unbelieving sinners. Regardless, Jesus came to save sinners – and that includes all of us. However, as with the case of Zacchaeus, those whom Jesus has brought to faith and knowledge of His salvation do not remain in commitment and orientation to sin, but rather are changed from the inside out so that they now seek to do good – and for the right reasons.
It is not, however, that they now no longer sin at all – we know how futile a thought that is, that we often do what we don’t want to do, and often fail to do the good that we want to do. We would have no such inner conflict if we remained committed and oriented toward continued and ongoing sin. But when we fail and fall into sin we repent, and rejoice to receive forgiveness and cleansing from Jesus, and we set out to “go and sin no more.” [John 8:11] The foolish and hypocritical people of the world have no understanding of this, and when they observe Christians falling into sin they assume that it is the same as their sin. Well, it may be on the outside but certainly not on the inside. And when pharisaic and hypocritical people are within the church, they try to turn the church into a pietistical farce, a place where no repentant and believing sinner is welcome, but only impenitent and arrogant liars are welcome to remain. Well, Jesus also came to save these blind and arrogant sinners, but we must remember that there is no friendship with God apart from repentance and allowing Jesus to seek us and save us – as He did with Zacchaeus. So they are in the right place as far as their need is concerned, but in the wrong place in regard to their beliefs. And their presence in the church does them no good at all, unless they repent.
So we also are sent to retrieve those who are “lost,” our fellow sinners. We are not sent to join them in commitment and orientation to continued sinning or to commend them to continuing in commitment to sin and evil, but rather to call them to repentance and to know our great Redeemer and Savior. We do not call them from a posture of pietistical impenitence, but rather as humble and repentant sinners who know and believe and rejoice in God’s great love, mercy, and forgiveness. And we surely invite them into the church, and pray that no impenitent hypocrites chase them out. It is the duty of all true Christians to take great care in these matters, that we not become arrogantly self-righteous, and that we not hurt or harm the faith of those whom Christ came to save. We also take great care not to justify continued commitment to sin, or fall into such commitment ourselves and away from repentance. Hopefully, the life of the church provides just such a place for us – calling us to full and genuine repentance, assuring us of Christ’s full and complete forgiveness and pardon, and encouraging us in our resolve and zeal to go and sin no more. It is certain that Christ is present in such a place and fellowship, doing what He came to do, seeking and saving the lost, those who are sinners.
Prayer For The Day
Dear Lord Jesus, thanks and praise be to You for coming to seek people just like me. You know how we abhor our continued and ongoing sin, how eager we are to be rid of it and done with sinful weakness. Thank You for the promise and assurance that it shall be so, when You appear and we see You, and are perfectly renewed in spirit, mind, and body. Preserve us from all hypocrisy and strengthen us in our resolve to encourage other sinners to come to You for gracious mercy and salvation. Make Your church the perfect place for sinners, and continue to transform our orientation, our commitments, and our priorities. Amen.