Lent 2010 #22 – SEARCH and RESCUE!!

St. Luke 15:1-10 (NRSV)

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them." So he told them this parable: "Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. "Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

THOUGHTS: 

This text from St. Luke's Gospel tells a couple of parables of things that are lost and the rejoicing that occurs when they are found.  A sheep and a coin were lost and in both of them Jesus lifts up the importance of the single person who is lost and then found by God.

How important that has been in recent weeks when one was found among the rubble in Haiti, or Chile or Turkey and the rejoicing that followed.  These parables raise for us the consciousness and awareness of what is really valuable.  

I read recently a devotional that talked about the value of our possessions – how common possessions can become extremely valuable, even priceless if they have been owned by someone who is powerful, wealthy or famous.  For example, did you know that Napoleon's toothbrush sold for $21,000?  Can you imagine paying thousands of dollars for someone's crude old toothbrush?  Hitler's car sold for over $150.000 years ago!  At the Sotheby's auction of Jackie Kennedy Onnassis' personal belongings, he fake pearls sold for $211,500 and JFK's wood clubs went for $772,500.  It is not that the items themselves are worthy, but that they once belonged to someone significant.

If we, as humans, place value on things because they belonged to people – stop to think for a minute of the value of something owned by God.  God singles us out and places value on us that is beyond human comprehension.  God cares about EACH and EVERY ONE of us as individuals and will never stop searching for us when we get lost and will rescue us at whatever the cost might be.  Now that's what search and rescue is all about!  That's the value and importance of ONE that God makes in claiming us found!

PRAYER: 

Lord Jesus, thank you for your continual search and rescue efforts in our lives – especially when we find ourselves lost from you.  Thank you for never giving up on us even when we give up on ourselves.  AMEN.

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Thoughts by Pastor Mike Magwire, King of Kings Lutheran (Fairfax, VA)

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These devotions for young adults are provided by:

Lutheran Campus Ministry at George Mason University http://www.gmu.edu/org/lutheran

Lutheran Student Association at the University of Maryland http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~lutheran/lsa/

DC Young Adults http://www.dcyoungadults.org/

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Lent Day #33

Luke 19:1-10 (ESV)

1 [Jesus] entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 And there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3 And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small of stature. 4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. 5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today." 6 So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. 7 And when they saw it, they all grumbled, "He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner." 8 And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold." 9 And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."

THOUGHTS:
In the Roman Empire, taxes weren't collected based on complex formulas based on income and deductions like we use today. Roman citizens didn't have to pay the taxes -- that burden fell on all the conquered nations. Tax collectors bid on the priviledge to collect the taxes in each community. Whoever bid highest would then front some portion of the money to the treasury. Then, the tax collector basically went around squeezing people to cover what they thought they could collect. Anything they raised above the pledged about was personal profit. It sounds to me like the tax system worked a lot like the mob payoffs on TV.

As you can imagine, tax collection was exceedingly profitable, and tax collectors were not popular. Zacchaeus was a "vertically challenged" tax collector, and he was stinking rich. Try to imagine his situation for a moment. He probably owned whatever he wanted, but he probably didn't have many friends. He made his riches through extortion. When he walked down the street, people might have tried not notice him. Can you imagine what they said behind his back? He may have felt like he was very important sometimes, but I bet he also had a big gaping hole inside -- I doubt his riches brought him joy.

Zacchaeus climbs a tree to see Jesus moving through the crowds. Why? Scripture says he was "seeking to see who Jesus was." Had he been up the tree to see others in the past? Was it a mere whim or was he specifically intrigued about Jesus from stories he had heard? Jesus sees him in the tree and calls him by name, asking Zacchaeus to take him home for lunch. Zacchaeus "hurried" and "received him joyfully". I wonder if the reason he was so joyful was because he felt overwhelmed by the love and compassion of Jesus. This is all we now of Zacchaeus -- we're left to assume that this one encounter -- this one shared lunch -- changed Zacchaeus' life.

He was lost and he probably knew it. He obviously knew he had treated people unfairly. He had all the money he could ask for, but he was lost. After meeting Jesus, he volunteers to give half of his good to the poor and pay back four times any unfair profits. Talk about life changing!

How has Jesus changed your life?

PRAYER:
God, thank you for coming for the lost and broken. Help us to admit that we are lost. Make us whole through Christ. AMEN.