Jesus seeks desperate people

Luke 19:5-7, Jesus said, “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.” (Read Luke 19:1-10 here.)

The guest of a sinner

Jesus was on a mission. He singled Zacchaeus out and chose to go to his home. 

What did Jesus see in the man that drew him? Jesus explains his choice by saying that he came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19: 10). The quality that drew Jesus to Zacchaeus was the fact that he was a lost man. 

The seeker of lost souls

In seeking out Zacchaeus, God shows you his heart. So often we talk about what Jesus did or said but ignore his attitude toward us and what drives him. 

Your God is passionate. Jesus came to look for those who wander through life dazed and confused. He searched them out intently, looking beyond those who clamored for his attention to locate those who had no hope. 

Jesus was not put off by Zacchaeus’s despicable sins. He did not recoil from him. Rather, Jesus saw his lostness and found him. 

The Savior still seeks

Jesus is the same today. The same grace that moved him to leave heaven and cross time and space to find one pathetic conniver half-hidden in a tree is the same grace that moves him to look for you. He looked for you [before] you first came to know him and he looks for you even now. 

Desperate people— lost, confused, frightened— need to know that God searches for them.

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Source: William P. Smith,  Heart of the Matter: Daily Reflections for Changing Hearts and Lives New Growth Press (2012-10-01).