Salvation

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

SALVATION

Luke 19:1-10

19:1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. 5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today."  6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. 7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a 'sinner.'" 8 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." 9 Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." 

NIV

A familiar story, yet it carries a very significate truth that maybe we have not considered before. This story demonstrates the difference between the self-righteous and the self-awareness of sin, especially in the presence of Jesus. We see the sefl-righteous here muttering about how Zacchaeus is a sinner, and that Jesus is associating with him. It is clear these self-righteous fools would never be found in the presence of such a sinner as a tax collector, much less go to his house for dinner. Jesus, on the other hand came for people like us, sinners. When Zacchaeus entered the presence of Jesus he became acutely aware of his sin, and repented, and in addition he acted upon his confession of faith in Jesus by giving away half his possessions and paying back four fold anyone he cheated by overtaxing them. These good deeds did not help his salvation, but they certainly were a response to his faith. This is our lesson. We cannot ever allow ourselves to become like those self-righteous people, thinking because we are saved, and that we don’t sin anymore, because we are such “Good Christians”. We cannot even think we are better in anyway then those who are still living in sin, completely living in the darkness of their own lives, without any concern for Jesus, for that matter God. They are indeed sinners, but so are we. The only difference is that we heard Jesus call us and tell us that he was coming to stay at our house, our heart, and we opened the door and he came and dined with us and salvation came to our house because he sought and saved who was lost, us. Because we heard Jesus call us, we too, like Zacchaeus repented of our sin, and turned to a new way of living. It is not as if Zacchaeus or we stopped sinning completely, but we have turned to a new way of living, of seeing life, of our goals and desires. What came to his house was salvation, and that is what has come to our house.