SERIES: “WHAT JESUS SAID ABOUT WHY HE CAME”
“I CAME TO SEEK AND TO SAVE WHAT WAS LOST”
LUKE 19:1-10
INTRODUCTION
Today we start a new series: “What Jesus Said About Why He Came.” During the Christmas season, we celebrate “God with us” – when God came to earth as a man. That God-man’s name is Jesus and during His time here on earth, He made several declarations concerning why He came. Over the next several weeks, we’re going to look at those statements and see how they affect our lives.
Today is also a notable day in the history of our nation. December 7th is Pearl Harbor Day. Franklin Delano
Roosevelt said, “December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy.” It is certainly a day that should be
remembered.
America’s participation in WWII was minimal up until the horrendous sneak attack that occurred on this
date in history. However, it was inevitable that the US would enter the war at some point. Japanese Admiral
Yamamoto understood that we would have to be put out of commission in a very decisive way. He had lived in
the US for a time and knew our capabilities based on our industrial strength, comparative wealth, and our
temperament of determination. It was Yamamoto who planned this infamous ambush.
In actuality, Yamamoto was against the attack. He was afraid of angering the US. But he was overruled by
his political superiors. As Commander in Chief of the Imperial Combined Fleet, he committed himself to
planning a successful attack. After the attack, Yamamoto is quoted as saying, “We have awakened a sleeping
giant and have instilled in him a terrible resolve.”
The goal was to keep the US effectively out of the war for at least eighteen months so that the Japanese
could overtake the Philippines and Indo-china and obtain the necessary raw materials they needed to maintain
their war efforts.
The person in charge of leading the attack was a pilot named Mitsuo Fuchida. He homed in on an American commercial radio broadcast from Honolulu and led the Japanese planes on an unmerciful bombing run. You might remember the Japanese phrase he radioed to his men and commanding officers: “Tora! Tora! Tora!” The literal translation: “Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!” The meaning: Like a tiger we have sneaked up on our prey and devoured them.
That Sunday morning, two waves of planes descended on Pearl Harbor and destroyed 8 ships, 200+ planes, and took 2,403 lives. Numerous sailors were trapped in their ships at Pearl Harbor and there was no way to rescue most of them. Rescuers were able to save 32 of the men from the capsized battleship Oklahoma but the others were not reachable.
On the night after the attack, a sailor by the name of Louis Grabinski from Erie, PA was sent to the battleship West Virginia as a sentry. He heard the sound of men beating on the hull from below and reported it to his superiors. The trapped men were abandoned because of the overwhelming difficulties in trying to rescue them. These men were not the only ones trapped alive in the hulls of the severely damaged ships. Many of these men lived for two weeks or longer. Some even survived until Christmas. Eventually they suffocated, died of thirst, or starved to death.
Hickham Field (now Hickham AFB) is located close to Pearl Harbor. It was attacked by 18 Japanese planes. Although there was some sever damage and loss of life, the tragedy at Peal Harbor was clearly more formidable.
Isn’t it horrible to know that someone needs to be saved but you know there isn’t a thing you can do to help? You just have to stand by helplessly and take in their helpless situation.
God knew our need for salvation but He certainly was not helpless or hopeless about what to do. He sent part of Himself to a young virgin woman from Nazareth who conceived through the Holy Spirit and gave birth to the only begotten Son of God. Her betrothed husband Joseph was informed by God of what was happening and was obedient to God’s call on his own life and called the Son of God by the name of Jesus – “God saves”.
It’s through Jesus that we find forgiveness and salvation because He gave His life as payment for our debt of sin. Today’s declaration by Jesus about why came: “I Came To Seek and to Save What Was Lost.”
Luke 19:1-10 – Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of
Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short
man he could not, because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since
Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come
down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” But Zacchaeus stood up and
said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated
anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come
to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what
was lost.”
By the way, I know that today is “Dine-out Sunday” and that the restaurant we’ll be eating at is across the time zone and they close at noon our time. I’ve been asked to preach a “short sermon” so I thought a message about Zacchaeus fit the bill.
SEEKING
The first thing we see in this passage is that Zacchaeus was seeking for something different than what he already had. Luke mentions that Zacchaeus was a tax collector. Tax collectors were contracted by the Roman government to collect the taxes due to Rome. They made their personal incomes by taking more than the government demanded. Sine only the Roman government and the tax collectors knew the correct tax scale, the tax collectors could charge whatever they wanted. The Roman government didn’t care as long as they got what they demanded.
Luke also tells us that Zacchaeus was not just a tax collector but a chief tax collector. He was the supervisor of all the tax collectors in the region. Not only did Zacchaeus collect taxes, he also received a percentage of the taxes collected by those under his supervision.
Jericho was a great place to be a chief tax collector. It was a very beautiful and agriculturally productive region. It produced large crops of figs and balsam. The town was also on the major East-West thoroughfare. Anyone coming from the Far East or heading to the Far East had to come through Jericho. A chief tax collector there would have the opportunity to become very wealthy. And Luke tells us that Zacchaeus was wealthy.
A local fitness center was offering $1,000 to anyone who could demonstrate that they were stronger than the owner. The man was quite a physical specimen and had tremendous hand strength.
The proposition worked this way: The owner would squeeze a lemon until all the juice ran into a glass. He’d then hand the lemon to the challenger. Anyone who could squeeze just one more drop of juice out of the lemon would win the money. Lots of people tried over time to squeeze just one more drop out of the lemon. There were weightlifters, construction workers, and even professional athletes, but nobody could do it.
One day a short, skinny guy came into the gym and asked to compete for the $1,000. After the laughter died down, the owner grabbed a lemon and a glass and squeezed away. Then he handed the wrinkled remains to the little man.
The crowd quit laughing when the little man clenched his fist around the lemon, squeezed, and six more drops fell into the glass. As the crowd cheered, the owner of the gym paid out the winning prize. He asked the little man what he did for a living. The little fellow replied, “I work for the IRS.”
Just like in our day, the tax collector was not a very popular figure. In fact, tax collectors were numbered with robbers, prostitutes, and murderers. They were lumped together in the category known as “sinners.” Socially and spiritually, the Jewish people looked on the tax collectors as traitors and as people who took money they did not earn.
Some years back, someone had scrawled graffiti on a subway way that read: “I like grils.” Someone else scrawled a correction which said: “It’s ‘girls’, dummy, not ‘grils.’ Someone else came along and wrote, “But what about us grils?” So many people feel like “grils.” Their treated with contempt and scorn and all they ask is that someone please recognize the hurt and pain in their lives.
And even though Zacchaeus was wealthy – he had plenty – what he had was not enough. His money did not make him happy. His wealth of possessions couldn’t fill his needs. Deep down inside there was a restlessness for more. I’m sure that he asked himself, “If this all life is about?”
There are lots of people in the world like Zacchaeus. They have everything they ever thought they wanted – a nice home, a family, a good job, memberships in all the right clubs and organizations, plenty of friends. But what they have just doesn’t fill that need that resonates deep within. What they have just doesn’t satisfy.
There are others who think they too have everything life has to offer – alcohol, drugs, illicit sexual affairs. For awhile, they think they have everything they need. But after awhile, it’s not enough. They have to have more and more to dull the hunger and thirst that comes from inside. But no matter how much they get, it’s never enough.
Even for those who call themselves Christians, they think they’ve got what works. They’ve got an outward religion where they attend church and do good things but it’s an empty religion. There’s no depth. They’re still spiritually hungry and thirsty but have convinced themselves that tradition and comfort are satisfactory.
Zacchaeus knew that he was searching for more! And he knew the One person that could fill the emptiness in his soul. The one person who could satisfy that spiritual hunger and thirst was Jesus and so Zacchaeus set out to learn more.
But Zacchaeus had another problem – he was too short! He couldn’t see over the crowd! Jesus was coming. People were gathered along the road to see Jesus but Zacchaeus wasn’t tall enough to see over the crowd. I think maybe the crowd took some evil pleasure in keeping this despised tax collector from seeing Jesus.
But notice that Zacchaeus didn’t let the crowd stop him. He ran down the street ahead of Jesus and climbed up a sycamore-fig tree – a tree with a short trunk and wide branches. Understand that in the 1st century, men of a certain social and economic stature did not run. It was undignified. And they certainly did not climb trees. Those actions were childish and unbecoming. But Zacchaeus didn’t care. All he knew was that somehow, he had to connect with Jesus.
And God rewards those who seek after Him Deut. 4:29, says, “But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.” Heb. 11:6 tells us, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and
that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
SOUGHT
We all need to understand that like Zacchaeus, we’re all “too short” to get to God. Rom. 3:23 reminds us, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” That’s why God came to us. We couldn’t get to Him but He certainly reach to us.
You see, Zacchaeus thought he was seeking for Jesus but what he didn’t know was that Jesus was seeking for him. The One that God had promised kept the promise of God in Ezek. 24:16, “I will search for the lost and bring back the strays…” When Adam and Eve sinned and hid from God, God came and sought them out.
Zacchaeus did everything he could to get to Jesus but he was still up a tree. Zacchaeus could only get close enough to Jesus to see Him. It was Jesus who saw Zacchaeus and said, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I
must stay at your house today.” Out of the large crowd of people that gathered on the streets of Jericho to see Jesus, Jesus saw them. He knew their hearts. He knew the loneliness and hunger in Zacchaeus’ life.
You’d think that Zacchaeus would have wondered how Jesus knew his name. But I guess that Zacchaeus figured that if Jesus knew his name then Jesus also knew everything else about him. He understood that the news he had heard about Jesus was true. Jesus had come not just to seek and to save other people, Jesus had come to seek and to save him.
The boss of a big company needed to call one of his employees at home concerning an urgent problem. He dials the employees’ home telephone number and is greeted with the whispered voice of a child saying, “Hello?”
Feeling put out at the inconvenience of having to talk to a child, the boss asks, “Is your Daddy home?” “Yes,” whispered the small voice. “May I talk with him?” the boss asks. To his surprise the small voice whispers, “No.”
Wanting to talk with an adult, the boss asks, “Is your Mommy there?” “Yes,” comes the answer. “May I talk with her?” Again, the small voice whispers, “No.”
Extremely agitated now, the boss asks, “If there anyone else there?” The child whispers, “Yep. The police. Now wondering why the police would be at his employee’s home, the boss says, “May I speak with one of the policemen?” The child whispers, “No, they’re busy.” The boss asks, “Busy doing what?” The child whispers, “Talking to Mommy and Daddy and the fireman.”
Now the boss is concerned and worried as he hears over the phone what sounds to be a helicopter. He asks, “What’s that noise?” The child whispers, “It’s a hello-copper.” Now the boss demands to know what is going on. The whispered voice says, “The search team just landed the hello-copper.”
The boss filled with alarm and frustration asks, “Why are they there?” Still whispering, the young voice replies with a muffled giggle, “They’re looking for me!”
When Jesus was on this earth, He sought out the lost. And still today He searched through the work of His Holy Spirit and through His church. He knows that you are looking but you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for. You just know that deep desire for something more.
And so today, we stand faithfully proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ because He desires relationship with you in such a passionate way that He came to this earth over 2,000 years ago so that you could know that He came just for you.
SAVED
Jesus invited himself to this man’s house for dinner! Could you imagine someone doing that to you? Most of us would have a problem with that scenario. Even invited guests are sometimes a burden.
A woman had invited the preacher and his family over for dinner one evening. It was hectic week and nothing worked the way it was supposed to. The day of the dinner, she had car problems. When she finally got to the grocery store to buy the food for the evening, she had trouble finding what she wanted and then had to wait forever in line to check out.
She stopped by the daycare to pick up her pre-schooler and had to wait while another parent was collecting her children. When she got home, she dropped one of the bags and several eggs broke and she had to clean up that mess. When her other children came home from school, they griped and complained every time they were asked to help. Her husband didn’t get in from work until 15 minutes before the preacher and his family was to be at their house. She barely made it upstairs to brush her hair, apply some makeup and change clothes when the visitors rang the doorbell.
When they sat down at the table to eat, she asked the preacher if he would say grace. The preacher asked the pre-schooler if she would say grace. The little girl looked confused and said, “I don’t know what to say.”
The preacher said, “Just say what your Mommy would say.” So the little girl bowed her head and said, “Lord, why in the world did invite these people over to my house tonight?”
But notice what Jesus says when He invited Himself to Zacchaeus’ house: “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” Jesus was saying, “Zacchaeus, you can’t wait any longer. You need what I’ve got and I’ve got what you need.” And Luke records, “So he came down at once and welcomed
him gladly.”
And when Zacchaeus allowed Jesus in, it changed his life. It changed his outlook – he quite looking inside himself or to worldly wealth for fulfillment. It changed his behavior – he went far beyond what was required for repayment. Zacchaeus repented and demonstrated that repentance with faithfulness in action.
I think the words of Clement of Rome express what happened in Zacchaeus’ life: “What shall I render to you, my Creator, for all your blessings to me? You will accept only my whole self, all that I have, and all that I
am. But I harbor a sin of fear which tempts me to hoard my life. So I ask only for your mercy. Forgive me. Wash me thoroughly. Graciously grant me such a clear vision of heaven, that my narrow selfishness may be
done away, lost in the expanse of your love.”
M. Eugene Boring and Fred B. Craddock, The People’s New Testament Commentary: “The biblical
language of “being saved” presupposes that life as we know it is incomplete, that it lacks something to be what
life should be, and that God has acted in Jesus Christ to supply that lack.” They also comment: “Being saved is having one’s life put in right relationship with God and other human beings, being given one’s life as it was
intended to be by God in this world, and being given the sure and certain hope of eternal life beyond this world.”
That’s what Jesus did for Zacchaeus. Jesus says, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this
man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” Zacchaeus is no longer an outcast. His sins have been forgiven and he is restored to relationship with the Father. Know that Jesus wants to change your life, too.
Ken Gehrels said, “Christmas is about Jesus, God’s Son....and you. God in Christ loving you. God in Christ finding you. God in Christ claiming you. God in Christ coming to take you into His family. It wasn’t just a passing fancy that brought Jesus to earth. He wasn’t strolling through heaven, and decided to take a detour to our planet. It was a deliberate attempt, at great cost to himself, to rescue the lost....”
CONCLUSION
You may remember me mentioning the name of Mitsuo Fuchida at the beginning of this message. He was the Japanese pilot who led the Pearl harbor attack and spoke the infamous words: “Tora! Tora! Tora!” Six months after radioing his message of success from Hawaii, Fuchida was severely wounded in the Battle of Midway and spent the rest of the war as a staff officer. After the war, he made his living in the egg business – selling eggs to the US Army Occupation Forces.
In 1949, he met an American missionary by the name of Jacob Deshazer, who incidentally was one of “Doolittle’s Raiders”. Fuchida became a Christian and in 1952, he became an evangelist and preached the good news of Jesus Christ.
He would tell people that his heart was filled with revenge at the time of the Pearl harbor strike. But, he added, “Christianity has opened my eyes, and I hoped through Christ to help the young people of Japan learn a great love for America.”
In 1959, Fuchida toured the United States as a member of the Worldwide Christian Missionary Army of Sky Pilots. Speaking at a church in mew York, he said that after the war he had observed American missionaries in Tokyo feeding the starving and teaching the “ways of Christ.” Such forgiveness on the part of the missionaries made him want to know more of the Christ that they professed to love.
If Christ can save the likes of Zacchaeus and Mitsuo Fuchida, He can do the same for you. Regardless of your helplessness or hopelessness, Christ stands ready to save you. Are you like Zacchaeus today – up a tree but ready to get down and get right?
