Triumphal Pre-entry

Triumphal Pre-entry

Luke 19:9-10, NIV

Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Setting the Scene

Days before Jesus arrived in Jerusalem for what has become known as the Triumphal Entry, he made a remarkable entry into one man’s life—the life of the chief tax collector Zacchaeus from Jericho. Salvation in the person of Jesus came to Zacchaeus’s house. The tax collector went from being a lost, rejected, and despised Jew to being a restored son of Abraham who was saved by the Son of Man.

Earlier, under the sycamore tree, Jesus had told Zacchaeus, “I must stay at your house today” (Luke 19:5, NIV). We can see immediately that Jesus invited himself for a visit—and that Zacchaeus responded to that idea with joy. But the word stay is also literally “remain,” and while the use of the word today seems to imply a limited duration, it can also be taken to mean something like, “Zacchaeus, today is the day I take up residency in your house.” Jesus uses the same word oikos for “house” in both verses 5 and 9. The word can be used to describe a physical residence, but it is also used to indicate a household or family. When Jesus announced that “salvation has come to this house,” he was describing at the least the arrival in Zacchaeus’s home of the transformative power of the gospel.

Jesus continues to “seek and to save the lost.” This brief account begins with a man setting out to seek and observe “who Jesus was” (Luke 19:3, NIV). By the time the account ends, that man himself has been found and restored. God wants our lives to fit that pattern.

Getting Personal

How did you discover at some point that you were lost?

In what sense have you found your relationship with Jesus to be restorative?

Zacchaeus reminds us that very successful people can be hopelessly lost. We may have found ourselves in that very state at some point. The artificial means we use to give us a feeling of location and place can actually become barriers to perceiving how lost we really are. It takes the arrival of Jesus to help us see our condition and the only remedy for it—the Savior.

Talking to God

Thank God for coming to seek and save what was lost, including yourself. Thank him that his Holy Spirit has taken up residence in you. Welcome the changes that come from having the Savior at home in your heart.