Well, good morning, church.
Turn with me in your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 18, beginning at verse 35.
We've been journeying through this middle section of the Gospel of Luke.
We have come to our last portion this morning.
Next week will be Easter Sunday.
We'll be looking at the account of the resurrection.
This Friday will be our Good Friday service, looking at the crucifixion.
But today we have come to nearing the conclusion of Jesus' journey to Jerusalem.
So let's read beginning chapter 18, beginning at verse 35 to chapter 19, verse 10.
As he, Jesus, as Jesus drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging.
And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant.
They told him, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.
And he cried out, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.
And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent.
But he cried out all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me.
And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him.
And when he came near, he asked him, what do you want me to do for you?
He said, Lord, let me recover my sight.
And Jesus said to him, recover your sight.
Your faith has made you well.
And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God.
And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.
He entered Jericho and was passing through.
And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus.
He was a chief tax collector and was rich.
And he was seeking to see who Jesus was.
But on account of the crowd, he could not, because he was small in stature.
So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him.
For he was about to pass that way.
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.
On February 18th of 1952, two tanker ships split in half in a terrible winter storm off the coast of Massachusetts.
From the portions of each ship that remained afloat, crews radioed for help.
The local Coast Guard station dispatched most of their resources to aid the first tanker.
So when the second tanker called for help, all that remained was four men and a 36-foot rescue boat.
Most people who heard about it thought it was a suicide mission.
The boat faced towering waves and gale force winds.
They had to cross a bar of dangerous shoals that could have easily have sunk the boat at any time.
And having reached the sinking ship, they then had to return to shore in the same way.
Against all odds, the rescue mission succeeded.
The story is told in the book and the movie, The Finest Hours.
The Finest Hours is not the only movie about a search and rescue mission.
Think of Argo, the unconventional rescue of American diplomats by a CIA agent or Saving Private Ryan.
Search for a soldier whose three brothers had been killed on the front lines of World War II.
Why are we attracted to these harrowing tales?
These heroic stories of search and rescue missions.
Missions.
You can almost guarantee that every couple of years, another one will come out and it'll be a blockbuster.
Now, some people might say rather cynically, people love a good thriller.
It helps them escape for a moment from the dullness of their daily lives.
That's all it is.
But aren't we so consistently drawn to these stories because in them we glimpse humanity at its best
when circumstances are at their worst.
We see men of courage and self-sacrifice undaunted by hostile environments putting the needs of others above their own.
And even in our cynical age, we can't help but admire that when it's real.
We might also sympathize with those who are lost and needing to be found, those who are in danger and needing to be rescued.
We feel our human vulnerability.
We realize that we could very well end up in such a situation and we hope that someone would have the compassion and courage
to reach out to us if we found ourselves in such desperate straits.
I think we're attracted to these stories because they tap into the reality of our human calling and our human condition.
We sense that if the world is ever to be put right, it will take something like a search and rescue mission.
Well, this is what the Bible has said all along.
The end of today's passage concludes with a statement,
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
For the last few months, we've been walking through this middle section of the Gospel of Luke,
following Jesus and His disciples along the road toward Jerusalem,
and today we arrive at the last stop before they reach Jerusalem itself.
They come to Jericho.
Jericho was an important city.
It was the first city the Israelites conquered when they crossed the Jordan and came into the Promised Land.
It was an oasis in a desert region surrounded by springs of water.
It was a busy city at the junction of main roads,
and it was especially busy as it was here when Jewish pilgrims were heading toward Jerusalem
for one of the three annual festivals because it was the last city the pilgrims would come to in the valley
before they went up the 15-mile-long mountain road to Jerusalem.
If you look up in verse 31,
Jesus says to His inner circle, the twelve,
For the third time, see, we're going up to Jerusalem.
And there the words of the prophets will be fulfilled,
and there I will suffer and die and rise again.
And for the third time, His closest followers look at Him with blank stares.
Verse 34,
They understood none of these things.
They've been with Jesus all along.
They understand the fact that He is walking toward Jerusalem,
but they don't understand why.
And they don't understand why He keeps telling them that He's going there to suffer
and be rejected and be killed,
and then rise again.
What does that mean?
But in our passage this morning,
Luke shows us the purpose of Jesus' journey
and the purpose of why Jesus came to earth.
Luke shows us here,
Jesus came on a search and rescue mission.
The Son of Man,
the truly human one,
the new Adam,
the King of Israel,
had finally arrived,
and He came to rescue us from our lost state
and bring us home with Him to God.
This morning, we see two men,
a blind beggar and a chief tax collector.
They're the last ones that join the caravan of Jesus' disciples
along this journey to His destination.
We see two men who are lost who get found.
I want to look at these two stories in three parts.
First, who were these men?
And in what sense were they lost?
Second, how does Jesus find them?
And third, what's the result?
So first, who were these two guys?
Who are these two guys that we meet here?
On the outside, these two men were about as different as you could imagine.
The first man, the blind beggar,
is physically helpless and desperately poor,
begging by the side of the road.
Do you remember in the parable of the shrewd manager,
the guy who's about to get fired from his desk job,
and he says,
I'm too ashamed,
I'm not strong enough to dig,
and I'm too ashamed to beg.
See, begging was seen as the most shameful,
demeaning means of survival imaginable.
It's humiliating to have no other option
but to beg a stranger for your next meal.
You have this sense that you don't belong anywhere.
There's nobody who will take you in
and even feed you.
And so that's all you can do.
And this is the blind man's life.
Every single day,
he would sit by the road calling out,
hoping that some passerby would be moved to pity him.
He couldn't even see
whether the people he was calling out to
would look at him
or whether they would simply turn their heads the other way
and pass by.
He was powerless.
In the 1990s,
the World Bank did a survey
of 60,000 poor people
from 60 different countries.
They asked them all the same question.
What is poverty?
What does it mean to be poor?
Here are the most common responses.
Shame,
inferiority,
powerlessness,
humiliation,
fear,
hopelessness,
depression,
isolation,
voicelessness.
The experience of being poor
wasn't just
and wasn't even primarily
about the lack of material things,
important and necessary as those are.
It was primarily about feeling dehumanized
and constantly overlooked
and disrespected.
Some of you may have felt that way.
Some of you may feel that way every day.
Powerless,
voiceless,
humiliated,
hopeless.
Maybe you felt that way
because of your physical circumstances.
Maybe you feel that way
for other reasons.
That's the first man.
The second man,
Zacchaeus,
is on the opposite end
of the social spectrum.
He's physically able.
He may have been short,
but he still could climb a tree.
And he was financially successful.
A chief tax collector.
Now,
when you hear tax collector,
that does not mean
that he was a government official.
He did not work
for the ancient equivalent
of the IRS.
The Roman government
had privatized
the tax collection business.
They subcontracted it out
to the highest bidder
in each region.
So, Zacchaeus
was an entrepreneur.
He was an independent
business owner.
And he had achieved
every business owner's dream.
He had found
some other guys
to work under him
to do most of his dirty work.
He would get a cut
off whatever they brought in
in addition to whatever
he brought in directly.
And in a busy town
like Jericho
with many people
coming and going,
imports and exports,
it's not surprising
that he was rich.
He had made it.
He owned a house.
He never had to beg.
In fact,
he could compel people
to pay him
and threaten them
with the police
if they didn't.
He had power.
Some of you might feel
like you've made it.
You've been successful
in your business.
You've risen to the top.
You stay in shape.
You can take care
of yourself
and your family
and you have a decent chunk
of change to spare.
Some of you
aren't quite there,
but you're on the way
and that's what
you're aiming for.
But you know,
you can be the top dog.
You can be,
you can look good
and feel good
and still deep down
you can wonder
what's the meaning
of it all.
Recently,
I was at an event
where Professor
Lori Santos
was speaking.
Some of you
are familiar with her.
Last year,
she taught the most
well-attended class
ever in Yale College
about how to be happy,
psychology,
and the good life.
And she rehearsed
the statistics
61% of college students
report feeling
overwhelming anxiety.
60% say they're
very lonely.
Over 40% say
they feel hopeless.
A third say
they feel so depressed
it's difficult to function.
And then she gave
her top three techniques.
Proven by empirical studies
for improving
your happiness.
Number one,
recognize your mind
lies to you.
The example she gave
was most people think
that in order to be happy
they need to earn
about twice as much
as they currently do.
But actually,
once you get to
a certain threshold,
she said about
$75,000 a year,
the more you earn
doesn't actually increase
your self-reported happiness.
Recognize your mind
lies to you.
Number one.
Second,
make time for social connections.
With family,
friends,
or even strangers,
live in a meaningful community.
Third,
express gratitude
every day.
Now,
guess what?
The top three
empirically proven ways
to improve your happiness
are all things
that the Bible
has been telling you
to do all along.
Recognize
that we are prone
to self-deception,
that we easily deceive
ourselves.
Live in meaningful community
and thank God
every day.
Of course,
the studies don't say
who you should thank,
but isn't that the question?
Who do you thank?
It's so much more satisfying
to have someone to thank.
Isn't that what we were made for?
But the point I wanted to get to
is at the end of her presentation,
someone asked this,
what if you implement
all these techniques
and still find yourself
longing for something more?
And she said,
I totally get that question.
She said,
I see the purpose
of my class
as wrapping
a big band-aid
around the hurts
of college students.
giving some relief,
trying to help people
feel a bit better.
And I hope
that once people
get some relief,
then they can start
asking the big questions
about meaning.
And she said,
the social sciences
by themselves
will never answer
those questions.
On the outside,
the blind man
seemed to have nothing,
and Zacchaeus
seemed to have it all.
But on the inside,
they both knew
their spiritual need.
And they were both
drawn to this Jesus.
We don't know exactly
what the blind man
or Zacchaeus
had heard
in advance about Jesus,
but when the blind man
heard that Jesus
was passing by,
he began crying out,
Jesus,
Son of David,
have mercy on me.
He did all that he could
to get Jesus' attention.
And interestingly,
in that one statement,
the blind man
displays more insight
into who Jesus is
than anyone else
around him.
The crowds
simply identified Jesus
as Jesus of Nazareth.
They identified him
with his hometown.
The blind man
identified Jesus
as one who had
kingly authority,
Son of David,
and tender mercy.
Verse 34 says,
the inner circle
of Jesus' disciples
still didn't understand
who he was
despite many
private conversations.
And the blind man,
relying only on
second-hand reports,
perceived something
true about Jesus
and desperately
wanted more.
Zacchaeus was also
drawn to Jesus.
Verse 3 said,
he was seeking
to see who Jesus was.
And the tense
of that verb
may imply
that he had wanted
to see who Jesus was
for a long time.
Maybe he had heard
that unlike
nearly every other
religious teacher,
Jesus spent time
talking and eating
with tax collectors,
who is this
religious teacher
who doesn't
just despise
people like me?
Whatever his thinking,
he heard that Jesus
had come to town
and he thought,
here's my chance.
They're both drawn
to Jesus,
but in both cases,
the crowd
gets in their way.
What happens
when the blind man
starts crying out
to Jesus?
The crowd
tells him to shut up.
Move over.
You're not important.
Jesus is.
Don't you recognize
that?
They rebuked him,
just like they rebuked
the parents
who were bringing
young infants
to Jesus
for his blessing.
Zacchaeus was also
hindered
on account
of the crowd.
He couldn't
see Jesus.
You might say,
well,
why doesn't he,
you know,
okay,
if he's short,
why doesn't he
just find a friendly
tall person
and ask to squeeze
in front of them?
Right?
I mean,
if I'm ever
in the back
of a crowd,
I just find
somebody like
Pastor Nick
and say,
hey,
can I get
in front of you?
Your view
won't be
instructed at all.
But no,
there was no
friendly person
in the crowd.
Tax collectors
were despised,
even hated.
They were seen
as traitors
and cheats.
And their reputation
was not
completely undeserved.
So they're both
drawn to Jesus.
The crowd gets
in both of their ways,
but we see
that both of them
persist
in reaching out
to Jesus.
The crowd
tells the blind man
to shut up
and he gets louder.
He cried out
all the more.
Zacchaeus
couldn't see Jesus
through the crowd,
so he runs ahead
of the crowd
and climbs a tree.
Now,
that's not exactly
the most dignified
thing to do.
I mean,
imagine a Yale professor
or a pharmaceutical
company executive,
right,
or someone
who works
in a bank
and is wearing
a suit,
climbing a tree
to peer over
a crowd
at a visiting celebrity.
A little unusual.
Now,
sycamore fig trees,
they're native
to Jericho,
and they are
great for climbing.
They're those kind
of trees that have
a big trunk
and lots of branches,
low-hanging branches,
and they also have
large leaves.
So,
most likely,
Zacchaeus thought,
okay,
if I get up
in this tree,
I can get a good
view of Jesus
and probably
I can escape
being seen
by the crowd.
But still,
he was taking
a risk
because he was
drawn to Jesus.
Now,
before we go on
in the stories,
let me take a moment
to speak to those
of you
who might be
like Zacchaeus
or the blind man,
drawn to Jesus
but not yet
committed
to Him.
Is there something
about Jesus
that is drawing
you towards Him?
Maybe it's what
the blind man noticed,
that he has this
striking combination
of kingly authority
and tender mercy.
You know,
if you read
through the Gospels,
you see this
all the time.
Jesus makes
the boldest claims
about Himself.
He claims to be
the promised Messiah.
He claims to be
God Himself.
He claims to be
and do
what only God
can be and do.
Over and over
and over.
And at the same time,
Jesus washes
His disciples' feet.
He spends time
with little children.
He touches lepers.
He befriends outcasts.
He's the humblest,
most approachable person,
most down-to-earth person ever.
And you might think,
how does that fit together?
I don't know anyone
who's that authoritative
and that humble
at the same time.
Maybe you grew up
in another religious tradition,
but you're seeing Jesus
and you see something
and it's strangely attractive
and it's drawing you toward Him.
And maybe you're desperate
like the blind man,
or maybe you're fascinated
like Zacchaeus.
But perhaps at the same time,
there's also something
that's getting in your way.
Something that's hindering you,
blocking you,
trying to intimidate you
and get you to stay away
from Jesus
like the crowd.
Maybe there's a hostile crowd
that tells you
like they told the blind man,
you're worthless.
Shut up
and get out of the way.
Maybe you've had bad experiences
with some of Jesus' disciples,
or at least people
who seem to be closer
to Jesus than you are.
Maybe some of them
look at you funny
or make you feel like
you're not wanted.
If you begin seeking after Jesus,
if you really want to find out
who He is,
there is almost always something
that will try to get in your way
and throw you off course.
And sometimes,
once you start following Jesus,
there's something
that gets in your way
and wants to stand
between you and Jesus.
Don't let anything
get in the way
of you finding out
who Jesus really is.
It's worth your time.
It's worth the potential
embarrassment
and inconvenience.
It's worth it
to reach out to Him
and seek to see Him
for who He really is.
There's a reason
why you're drawn to Him.
It's worth finding out
if that's real and true.
And Christians,
there's a lesson for us too.
Let's not allow anything
to get in the way
of us fixing our eyes
on Jesus,
the author
and perfecter
of our faith.
So that's the first part
of these stories,
these two men.
On the outside,
they looked completely different,
but on the inside,
they're both drawn to Jesus.
Second part,
how did Jesus find them?
I want you to step back
for a moment.
I want you to imagine
that you are hearing
or reading through
the Gospel of Luke
for the first time
and that you know
nothing else about Jesus
or about Christianity.
By this time
in Luke's Gospel,
you would probably expect
that Jesus will heal
this blind man.
Why?
Well,
in chapter 4,
Jesus' opening sermon,
He says,
He has come to proclaim
good news to the poor
and recovering of sight
to the blind.
Chapter 7,
He has already
bestowed sight
on many who are blind.
Chapter 14,
Jesus tells people,
invite the poor,
the crippled,
the blind,
the lame
to your feasts.
Chapter 17,
Jesus heals
a group of lepers
who call out to Him
in the same words,
have mercy on us.
Over and over,
we've seen Jesus' compassion
for the lowest,
the last,
and the least.
Jesus is the Savior
of the helpless
and the hopeless
and of all who recognize
their spiritually hopeless condition
and cry out to Him
for mercy.
But if you were reading
through Luke
for the very first time
or hearing it read to you
back in the ancient world,
what would you expect
when you hear about Zacchaeus?
On the one hand,
we've seen Jesus
earlier in Luke
showing welcome
and hospitality
to tax collectors
and sinners.
On the other hand,
we've seen Jesus
repeatedly warning
the rich
that God's judgment
will come upon them.
If you do a word search
for the word rich
in the Gospel of Luke,
here's what you'll find.
Chapter 1,
the Song of Mary.
God has filled the hungry
with good things
and the rich
He has sent away empty.
Chapter 6,
woe to you who are rich
for you have received
your consolation.
Chapter 12,
the parable of the rich fool.
With great plans
to build bigger barns
only to have his life
taken from him
that very night.
Chapter 16,
the parable of the rich man
who ends up in hell
while Lazarus
ends up in heaven.
In chapter 18,
the ruler who at first
seemed so eager
to follow Jesus,
but when Jesus told him
to give away his wealth,
he became very sad
for he was extremely rich.
And Jesus says
in chapter 18,
verse 25,
it is easier for a camel
to go through
the eye of a needle
than for a rich person
to enter the kingdom of God.
So far in the gospel of Luke,
riches are almost always
a hindrance
to following Jesus.
And so when we hear
in verse 2
that Zacchaeus was rich,
we think
he's the most unlikely candidate
to join Jesus' entourage.
He's the one
who would have seemed
farthest away
from the kingdom of God.
He had everything
he could want
in this world's terms
and so why would he need
anything else?
But Jesus seeks
and saves
even him.
You see,
you can't predict
in advance
how someone
will respond
to Jesus.
sometimes we
can be tempted
to write people off
because we assume
that they have
no interest
in spiritual things
at all.
The only way
you can know
is to invite them
in one way
or another
to consider Jesus.
Both men
were drawn
toward Jesus
but neither of them
would have found
Jesus on their own.
You see,
neither of them
would have personally
encountered Jesus
unless Jesus
personally
sought them out.
You see,
what we see
in these two stories
is not the blind man
and Zacchaeus
successfully
being successful
in their quest
to find Jesus.
We see Jesus
being successful
in his quest
to find them.
All the blind man
could do
was cry out
for help.
He couldn't even
see where Jesus
was,
let alone
walk over to him.
Verse 40 says,
Jesus stopped
and commanded him
to be brought
to him
and said,
what do you want
me to do for you?
Jesus treated
the man
as a person
to be loved
and honored,
not as a problem
to be solved
or done away with.
Jesus was not
too busy,
too anxious,
or too distracted
to hear the cries
of a desperate man.
And Jesus gave
this blind man
even more
than he asked for.
Lord,
let me recover
my sight.
And Jesus says,
recover your sight.
And then he says,
your faith
has made you well.
But elsewhere,
that same phrase
is translated,
your faith
has saved
you.
Who can be saved?
Everyone
who reaches out
to Jesus
in faith.
likewise,
Zacchaeus also
got more
from Jesus
than he had
bargained for.
You know,
it's not clear
what exactly
Zacchaeus
was hoping for.
Climb the tree,
certainly wants
to see Jesus.
Perhaps he wants
to hear him
in person.
But
he certainly
didn't expect
Jesus to look
up in the tree
and call him
by name
and invite
himself over
to his house
for dinner.
By the way,
that was not
any more common
in the ancient
world than it is
today.
It's the only
time somebody
does that
in the Gospels.
Jesus came
to Zacchaeus'
house,
and verse 9
says salvation
came to Zacchaeus'
house that day
too,
because Jesus
had come.
You see,
despite the
barriers
presented by
the crowd,
Jesus sought
out these
two men.
Someone said,
if anyone
is seeking
after God,
it is only
because God
has been
seeking that
person first.
C.S. Lewis
wrote,
there comes a
moment when
people who
have been
dabbling in
religion,
man's search
for God,
suddenly draw
back.
Supposing we
really found
him,
worse still,
supposing he
had found
us.
An impersonal
God,
well and
good.
A subject
of God
inside our
own heads,
better still.
A formless
life force
surging through
us,
a vast power
which we can
tap best of
all.
But God
himself,
alive,
pulling at
the other
end of the
cord,
approaching at
an infinite
speed,
the hunter,
the king,
the husband,
that is quite
another matter.
Jesus says
to Zacchaeus,
I must
stay at
your house
today.
It's that
verb,
must,
that Luke
uses over
and over
to indicate
the steadfast
purpose of
God.
Hurry,
he says.
We must
not even
delay.
And in
verse 6,
we see
Zacchaeus'
vigorous response.
Four colorful
verbs.
He hurried,
he came down,
he received,
and he
rejoiced.
Verse 7,
we see the
crowd's response
again in
four verbs.
They saw,
they grumbled,
he has gone
to be his
guest.
You see,
Jesus
endures
the scorn
and hatred
of the crowd
against
Zacchaeus.
the crowd
starts
complaining
about Jesus,
not just
about
that
despised
tax collector
who got
rich off
us.
The crowd
now
says,
he has
gone
there.
But the
Bible says
Jesus is not
ashamed
to call
us his
brothers and
sisters.
Jesus identifies
with us
even to the
point of
enduring the
scorn and
hatred that
others direct
against us.
Hebrews says,
he endured the
cross,
despising the
shame,
so that we
might be brought
with him to
glory.
You notice how
the crowd's
reactions differ?
When Jesus
heals the
blind man,
the crowd
rejoices.
They praise
God.
When Jesus
goes to
Zacchaeus'
house,
the crowd
grumbles.
But Jesus
doesn't choose
his followers
based on a
popularity contest.
Thank God.
God.
He doesn't
extend his
welcome to
us based
on how many
people will
approve of
him for
welcoming us.
He has
come to
seek and
to save
the lost.
He's come
on a
search and
rescue
mission.
Finally,
the result.
How are
these men
changed by
their encounter
with Jesus?
Jesus.
The blind
man shows
us what
faith looks
like.
Verse 43,
he recovered
his sight and
followed Jesus
glorifying God.
You see,
the blind
man didn't
just see
Jesus as
a means
to some
other end.
He didn't
just get
his healing,
go on
his way,
and do
his own
thing.
No,
his healing
led him
to obedience
and worship.
He led
the people
in praising
God.
Nothing
could hold
him back
from becoming
a full-fledged
disciple.
The twelve
couldn't
imagine
why Jesus
was going
up to
Jerusalem.
The blind
man couldn't
imagine
not going
with him.
That's what
faith looks
like,
following
Jesus
and
worshiping
God.
You see,
faith is not
like it's
something that
we have to
sort of build
up within
ourselves and
feel within
ourselves and
feel really
strong in.
Faith is
simply looking
at Jesus.
at first,
it's reaching
out to him
despite the
hindrance of
the crowd,
and at the
end,
it's following
him and
walking with
him along
the road.
It's just
looking at
him.
When Jesus
says,
your faith
has saved
you,
Jesus is
not saying
your achievement
has saved
you.
He's saying,
looking at
me as I
have saved
you.
The blind
man shows
us a picture
of faith.
And
Zacchaeus,
Zacchaeus shows
us a picture
of repentance.
Verse 8,
without even
being asked
to do so,
Zacchaeus
willingly gives
50% of his
wealth to
the poor,
and he
promises to
make restitution
to everyone
he has
wronged.
That's a
heart that
has been
changed by
the grace
of Jesus.
Back then,
giving 20%
of your wealth
away was
considered
extremely
generous.
And in
most cases,
the law
of Moses
only required
you to
add 20%
when making
restitution.
Zacchaeus goes
above and
beyond the
letter of
the law
because the
Holy Spirit
had broken
through in
his heart
and given
him a love
for God.
He had
become a
child of
God.
You see,
when someone
truly receives
Jesus like
Zacchaeus,
there are
fruits of
repentance.
Sooner or
later,
repentance
expresses itself
in concrete
acts.
Someone said,
when Jesus
opened his
heart to
Zacchaeus,
Zacchaeus
opened his
heart to
the poor.
See,
when we
truly receive
Jesus,
we begin
to see
other people
differently.
People that
you used to
think of as
beneath you
are now
fellow image
bearers of
God or
even brothers
and sisters
in Christ.
People who
you used to
see as
above you,
you're not
so intimidated
by them
anymore because
they're just
people.
The blind
man could
join in
with Jesus'
disciples
and not be
ashamed.
From all
the humiliation
he experienced
through his
whole life,
he knew
that he
belonged in
the company
of Jesus'
disciples and
Zacchaeus no
longer looked
down on the
poor and
on his
customers.
He started
to value
them and
want to
treat them
right and
to love his
neighbor as
himself and
so he said,
I'm going to
share some
of what I
have.
Zacchaeus
gives us a
picture of
repentance,
the blind
man gives
us a picture
of faith,
but in
reality these
are simply
two sides
of the
same coin.
Turning from
sin,
turning to
Jesus,
getting off
the sinking
ship and
stepping in
to the
lifeboat.
Why did
Jesus come
to earth?
Why did
he go up
to Jerusalem
and enter
the city
on Palm
Sunday and
suffer and
die on
Good Friday
and rise
again on
Easter Sunday?
He did it
all because
he came to
seek and
to save
the lost.
Let us
pray.
We thank
you,
Lord,
for your
abundant
mercy and
grace.
We thank
you for
how we
see it
in the
story of
these two
men
who you
sought
out,
who you
found,
and who
now belong
to you.
and trust
you and
worship you
for all
eternity.
Lord, we
pray.
We pray
that you
would
search us
out.
Lord, those
of us who
are far
from you,
we pray
that you
would search
us out
and show
yourself to
us and
draw us
to you.
we pray
that for
those of
us who
have come
to repent
and believe
in you,
that we
would continue
on that
journey of
daily repentance
and faith,
that we
would look
to you,
our great
shepherd,
our great
Savior,
our Lord.
Amen.