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“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

This past Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent, a period when many churches typically place a focus on the events concerning the birth of Christ. The first Christmas songs of the season are often sung and many churches use a series leading up to Christmas Sunday. Our church began the first Sunday of Advent with the theme of "In The Waiting".

From a preaching perspective it can be a challenging time for pastors. It's expected of pastors to preach on this theme yet the Biblical narratives concerning the human dimension of Christ's birth only take up several chapters in Matthew and Luke's gospels, and regular attendees are pretty familiar with those portions of Scripture. So we seek to be creative yet Biblically faithful.

Years ago our pastor, Beau Eckert, preached an advent sermon from the account of Zacchaeus. In his introduction he admitted this would seem to be an unusual text to use in a Christmas series, but by the time he was finished it was very clear how it fit so well due to a key point at the end of the story.

The entire account is found in Luke 19:1-10, a portion of the Bible dealing not with His birth, but with Christ's final journey to Jerusalem some 33 years after His birth.

Zacchaeus, as many of you know, was a man of short stature ("a wee little man") who climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus as He passed by. "He was seeking to see who Jesus was". The motivation for his seeking is not clear in the text.

Zacchaeus is introduced as "a chief tax collector and was rich" and thus deeply loathed by the people and perhaps the last person the crowd would expect Jesus to give any attention to. But Jesus called Him out of that tree and invited Himself over to his house, which seems very unusual to us in our culture!

Zacchaeus demonstrated his earnest desire to change his life, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold". Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham".

The portion ends with a great mission statement by Jesus: "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). This is the very heart of His mission to earth. He "came to seek and to save the lost". Jesus accomplished His mission. Now, like Zacchaeus, all who call upon the Lord in earnest faith will be saved.

At the conclusion our pastor showed a graphic asking us to picture Zacchaeus in the nativity scene, representing one whom Jesus had come to seek and to save. We urge you to place yourself in that scene. Jesus continues to seek and to save the lost.

He "gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age" (Galatians 1:4). In virtually all search and rescue operations the one(s) being sought after are desperately wanting to be rescued. But in the divine search and rescue mission many choose to remain in their sins and lost condition. They essentially reject the outstretched Hand of rescue.

We can all say the words to John Newton's great hymn, "I once was lost but now I'm found, 'twas blind but now I see"!

Be encouraged today, Hebrews 3:13

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer: Loving Father, You rescued us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of Your Son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Where would we be today without the redemptive work of Jesus who bore the pain and disgrace of our sins that we might be forgiven and receive eternal life. We give You praise now and forevermore through Christ Jesus our Lord in whose name we pray. Amen.

Note: Musing on today's topic consider that it is now also our mission to seek and to save the lost by pointing them to the Savior.