His Mission And Ours

His Mission and Ours

Read: Luke 19:1-10

“The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”

Luke 19:10

“When the Spirit of God comes into a man, He gives him a worldwide outlook.”

—Oswald Chambers

IN WORD Think of the odd assortment of people to whom Jesus was drawn. In this passage, it’s a dishonest tax collector. Elsewhere, it’s a prostitute; a raging, demon- possessed lunatic; an adulteress; beggars; lepers; and just about everyone else who had no legitimate case to make about their own righteousness and well-being. His harshest words were reserved for the self-righteous, those who thought they needed nothing more than what they already had. They were just as lost, but could not know it unless they were directly confronted. The overt sinners, though, knew it already. They needed help.

If Christ was so drawn to sinners, why isn’t the body of Christ equally drawn? Many of us can hardly say we live to seek and save what is lost. We often act as if we live to affirm and support what is superior. We tend to avoid the unseemly and cultivate the faithful. Cultivating the faithful is good, as Jesus spent three years doing so with His disciples. But His search for that which was lost and broken was zealous and relentless. Is ours?

IN DEED If our identity is in Jesus, and His Spirit is living in us, we will be drawn to others as He was. We will be brokenhearted about those who suffer in sinful, diseased conditions just as He was—and is—brokenhearted. The zeal of our search to bring His redemption into a captive world will in some way reflect His zeal. It will be a diagnostic measure of the reality of our union with Him.

Is this alarming? Perhaps for many of us it is. The knee-jerk reaction to the imperative of seeking and saving the lost is to try to cultivate a desire to do so. Resist the urge. Be aware of the need, but respond by cultivating your union with Jesus. You cannot muster up the appropriate zeal, but fellowship with His Spirit will make His agenda contagious to you and those around you. Let His mission become yours.