Kingdom Building

November 3, 2019

Scripture Reading: Luke 19:1-10

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 down and was happy to welcome him. All who saw it began to grumble and said, ‘He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.’ Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, ‘Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.’ –Luke 19:5-10

Jesus came to seek out and to save the lost. Jesus sent us forth to do the same thing. The Greek word, apollumi*, translated her as lost has a more dire meaning then we may consider is assigned to the word lost. Apollumi means to destroy, destroy utterly and may be used to mean perishing. Think of the lost sheep that the shepherd leaves his or her 99 other sheep to find. A lone sheep is much more vulnerable than a flock of sheep.

We are called to walk beside those who are lost who cannot seem to find their way or who have strayed from the way of love. I learned a long time ago that there is no magic wand to wave to save people from themselves or the oppression of others. I think sometimes because the stories in the gospels of Jesus’ healings are of necessity truncated reports that we want to fix people just as quickly. Life as the Body of Christ in the world today does not work like that. I remember preparing to testify in court about a child abuse case. I had a rather thick file at my desk that recorded several years of problems with the family. Because of the nature of the case, I went to the filling cabinet and checked for additional information. I found two more equally full files that covered three generations of background on the family. While that might be daunting at first glance, I discovered family members through all three folders who had escaped the prison of poverty and abuse and were living productive lives raising healthy families.

The example provided in the scripture above describes the other end of the spectrum of life, people who seem to have it all. The wealthy who are deemed successful can be just as lost as the poor and oppressed. In some cases, the wealthy and successful may have greater problems because they may be contributing to people being poor and oppressed. Clearly that was the case with Zacchaeus. The story does not tell how long Zacchaeus had been overhearing the gospel shared by Jesus or what peaked his interest or why it was so important for him to hear more. Clearly, something got his attention, changed his life forever, and changed the lives of all those from whom he collected taxes.

Prayer: God of Mercy and of Justice, connect us through your Spirit to be conduits of helping the lost to find their way home. Amen.

*https://biblehub.com/greek/622.htm

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.