“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10
Jesus had just passed through Jericho and, as He was going along the road, there is a man who has climbed up into a sycamore tree so that he can see Jesus as He passes by. This man was not very tall so he figured his best chance of getting to see the Master was to gain some altitude, and so he did. To put it another way, this man was seeking to find Jesus that day.
You would think that if the Lord knew someone by name, it would be because they were very close to Him, very devout and faithful to the Lord. For instance, the Lord referred to Job by his name and said there was no one like him when it came to doing the will of God. But, then there’s Saul of Tarsus, who not only was not doing God’s will but was actually doing everything he could against the church and against the Christians. Yet, when Jesus confronts him on the way to Damascus, He calls him by his name twice!
Before you ever knew the Lord, He knew you and He pursued you! Like the Shepherd that He is, Jesus came to seek and to save those who are lost. If ever anyone was lost, it was Zacchaeus. Surely, growing up as a young boy he never aspired to become the chief tax collector. After all, what child sits around thinking, “When I grow up, I am going to be the most despised, despicable person in the entire region. I will steal and extort other people’s hard-earned money and become rich through these ill-gotten gains.” No, he probably didn’t start out to become the man he became, but who does? Before he knew it, that was his life, even if he couldn’t really pin point how it got to be so bad.
Unbeknownst to Zacchaeus, he was being sought by the Lord Jesus. That revelation would have come as a shock to him since he was constantly being told by others (especially religious people) what a sinner he was. Why would Jesus stop to even give him the time of day, considering all of his transgressions? And, if he ever thought for a moment that he had even a tiny chance of meeting Jesus, there were plenty of people around to remind him of all the reasons that would never happen.
And yet, here we are. Not only does Jesus stop to talk to Zacchaeus, but He calls him by his name. That’s right, even before Zacchaeus met Jesus, he was known to Him by his name. In fact, Zacchaeus thought he was seeking Jesus that day, not even knowing that Jesus had been seeking him for a long time and now the time had come for Zacchaeus to meet Jesus.
There will never be a shortage of people around to tell you all of the reasons why Jesus would not listen to you, let alone talk to you or be present with you in your home. And, invariably, these people will be confident of their own righteousness even while they too fall short of God’s mark. No doubt, Zacchaeus had many sins to his credit, but the Good Shepherd saw in him something of the Maker’s making — the potential to become what God created him to be.
The Lord is looking for you right now. Oh, He knows where you are certainly, for He knows everything, but you have to know that He knows where you are. He came to seek and save!
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