I have to hand it to doctor Luke. He completely embellishes the lead.
You know people like that, they can tell you a whole story full of day to day things and then your mind gives you slap as you realise they just nonchallantly dropped a bombshell…
“Oh… didn’t I mention she was pregnant?”
Anyhoo… Luke buries the lead on what is probably the 13 most important words in the Bible:
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
(Luke 19:10 NIV)
The full and complete purpose of Jesus, who became the Christ… for us!!
Think about this for a moment… It’s like a movie, like “Saving Private Ryan”. Whatever happens, we will not fail, we will find him, and we will bring him home!
That is Jesus. He came to find me. To search me out and to bring me home…
(There is absolutely no reason for a Christian to just be, to just survive, to just live from day to day…) Jesus was quoting that epic phrase from the book of Ezekiel, and any Jew that attended synagogue would have understood the further implications.
Ezekiel says that our shepherd will save us from the mouths of our keepers. We are food, to be devoured and destroyed:
“I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.”
(Ezekiel 34:10 NIV)
And furthermore, Jesus will go out and search for the strays (are you wandering around purposeless… just living from day to day?) Those that are hurt, He will treat and heal. Those that are weak, He will strengthen. Those that are broken, He will bind up and make whole!
“I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak”
(Ezekiel 34:16 NIV)
Think about this…
More than 2,000 years ago, Jesus was born, taught and lived a life of truth for us to follow, and then be willingly crucified… why? So that two millennia later, He can search me out, kneel next to me in the dirt, pick up my broken body and carry me off to make me strong.
Jesus didn’t come across me.
I didn’t “find” Jesus…
Jesus… sought… me… out!
Christianity isn’t just a nice moral lifestyle, the Bible isn’t just a book and the church isn’t just a Sunday morning guilt trip to be a better person…
Let me tell you about Jesus… and why He came.
