Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 19:10
For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
10. that which was lost ] See Luk 15:1-32; Mat 18:11; 1Ti 1:15; Eze 34:11-16.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
See the notes at Mat 18:11.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
10. lostand such “lost”ones as this Zaccheus. (See on Lu15:32.) What encouragement is there in this narrative to hope forunexpected conversions?
Lu19:11-27. PARABLE OF THEPOUNDS.
A different parable from that ofthe Talents (Mt25:14-30). For, (1) This parable was spoken “when He wasnigh to Jerusalem” (Lu19:11); that one, some days after entering it, and from the Mountof Olives. (2) This parable was spoken to the promiscuous crowd;that, to the Twelve alone. Accordingly, (3) Besides the “servants”in this parable, who profess subjection to Him, there is a class of”citizens” who refuse to own Him, and who are treateddifferently, whereas in the parable of the talents, spoken to theformer class alone, this latter class is omitted. (4) In theTalents, each servant receives a different number of them (five, two,one); in the Pounds all receive the same one pound, which is butabout the sixtieth part of a talent; also, in the talents, each showsthe same fidelity by doubling what he received (the five are madeten; the two, four); in the Pounds, each receiving the same, render adifferent return (one making his pound ten, another five).Plainly, therefore, the intended lesson is different; the oneillustrating equal fidelity with different degrees of advantage;the other, different degrees of improvement of the sameopportunities; yet with all this difference, the parables areremarkably similar.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For the son of man,…. Meaning himself, who was truly man, and the Messiah, and which was one of his names in the Old Testament:
is come: from heaven, into this world, being sent by the Father, and with the full consent and good will of his own:
to seek and save that which was lost: as all his elect were in Adam, and by their own actual transgressions; and are considered as such, whilst in a state of unregeneracy: and particularly the lost sheep of the house of Israel are meant, one of which Zacchaeus was; and so the words are a reason of Christ’s looking him up, and calling him by his grace, and making a discovery of himself, and an application of salvation to him; see Mt 18:11.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The lost ( ). The neuter as a collective whole, second perfect active participle of , to destroy. See Lu 15 for the idea of the lost.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “For the Son of man is come,” (elthen gar ho huios tou anthropou) “For the heir of mankind came,” and is come, is here, now present, to meet the needs of men like Zacchaeus, of even rich sinners, Joh 3:17; Luk 18:25-27.
2) “To seek and to save that which was lost.” (zetesai kai sosai to, apolosos) “To seek and to save (by his own voluntary initiative) the thing (that which) has been and is lost,” the entire (kosmos) or universe, both the human race and the original creation, in entirety, Joh 6:38; Joh 17:4; Joh 20:21. Those lost without moral integrity and holiness, may yet be saved by receiving Jesus, Eze 34:16; Rom 5:6.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(10) The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.Like words had been spoken once before, under circumstances that presented a very striking contrast to those now before us. Then the loving purpose of the Christ had for its object the little child, as yet untouched by the worlds offences (Mat. 18:2; Mat. 18:11): now it rested on the publican, whose manhood had been marred by them. The same law of work is reproduced in a more emphatic form. There it had been that He came to save: here it is that He came to seek as well.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
10. That which was lost Lost in sin, as doubtless Zaccheus was. And these are the solemn words with which Jesus closes his mission to the publicans of the Jordan, and his defence of the mercy that inspired it.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“For the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost.”
And then He described Himself and His saving mission in terms of the parables of the shepherd and the woman with the lost coin in Luk 15:1-10, which in the Section chiasmus was in parallel with the verses that now follow. The emphasis on ‘saving’ indicates an especial reference to the parable of the lost sheep. Jesus is present to deliver. So this section, which begins with the parables describing the search of God for the lost, is approaching its conclusion with an example of one who was sought and found.
Here we have a clear application to Himself of the title of Son of Man in terms of One Who saves. It was an indication that He was the Messiah of the end times. In Dan 7:13-14 He does it by coming to the throne of God on behalf of a people who along with Him are being trodden down by the Beasts, and becoming their great Deliverer with power and authority over all things, for salvation is from the Lord. And here He does it, having come as the Great Deliverer, by seeking and saving the lost. We can compare the previous use of the title Son of Man as the One Who has authority on earth to forgive sins in Luk 5:24. As the Ruler of His people He has jurisdiction over them, and will search them out and save them.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Luk 19:10. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save, &c. Farther to convince the people that our Lord acted agreeably to his character, in keeping company withpublicans and sinners, he told them, that the great design of his coming into the world was to save such; alluding to the parables of the lost sheep, lost money, and lost son, which he had lately delivered, to prove how agreeable it was to reason, to the duties of his mission, and to the will of God, that he should keep company with the worst of sinners, in order to recover them unto God their rightful owner. And therefore, though Zaccheus had been as bad a man as the multitude supposed him, and his vocation bespoke him to be, Jesus was in the exercise of his duty when he went to his house.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 1561
THE END FOR WHICH THE SON OF MAN CAME
Luk 19:10. The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
ONE would imagine that all should be pleased with the conversion of notorious sinners: but it too often excites indignation rather than pleasure in the breasts of proud Pharisees. Zaccheus was a tax-gatherer, and most probably, like the rest in that line, was addicted to rapacity and extortion, though, perhaps, not in so great a degree as some others. He having a curiosity to see Jesus, and not being able, on account of the smallness of his stature, ran before, and climbed up into a tree near which Jesus was about to pass. Our blessed Lord in an instant converted his soul; and, calling him down from the tree, went home to dine with him. This, it seems, gave great offence to the Pharisees, who could not endure to see such a distinguishing favour conferred on so worthless a character. But our Lord vindicated his own conduct, by alleging that, however sinful Zaccheus might be, he was a descendant of Abraham; and that the very intent of his own advent in the flesh, was to seek and to save that which was lost.
To elucidate these comfortable words, we shall shew,
I.
Who this Son of man is
This, to those who beheld him in the flesh, was no easy matter to determine [Note: When he spoke of his approaching crucifixion, and yet of drawing all men to himself, his hearers could not conceive how such opposite things could be affirmed of the same person, the one indicating him to be a man, the other to be a God. Hence they ask him, Who is this Son of man? Joh 12:32-34.]: but to us it is clear as the light. Let us consult,
1.
What Jesus has said of himself
[He tells us that the Son does whatsoever the Father does; quickens whom he will, even as the Father does; has all judgment committed to him; is to be honoured even as the Father is; yea, that the Father is not honoured unless he also be honoured: that he will raise the dead by his voice: that he hath life in himself even as the Father has; and has authority to execute judgment also, because he is the son of man [Note: Joh 5:19-27.]. Here he calls himself the Son, the Son of God, the Son of man, evidently shewing, that these different names were of the same import, and that, notwithstanding he was a man, he possessed, and exercised, a divine power.
He speaks of the Son of man as existing in heaven before his incarnation [Note: Joh 6:62.], before the world was made [Note: Joh 17:5.], and even while, in his human nature, he was on earth [Note: Joh 3:13.].
He declared that the Son of man had a power to dispense with the Sabbath [Note: Mar 2:28.], and even to forgive sins [Note: Luk 5:20-24.]; and when accused of being guilty of blasphemy for arrogating such power to himself, he reasserted his claim to that divine prerogative, and wrought a miracle in confirmation of it. Finally, he foretold that the Son of man would come again in his own glory, with his holy angels [Note: Mat 25:31.]: and he bade his Disciples watch and pray, that they might be worthy to stand before the Son of man [Note: Luk 21:36.].
Put these words into the mouth of Peter, or Paul, or any creature, however exalted, and they will appear arrogant, and blasphemous, in the extreme.]
2.
What his Disciples have said of him
[The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews says, When God bringeth in the first-begotten into the world, he saith, Let all the angels of God worship him: and again, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; and again, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the Son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little (or, for a little time) lower than the angels [Note: Heb 1:6; Heb 1:8; Heb 2:6-7.]. What can all this mean, but that he was infinitely superior to angels in his pre-existent state, but was made lower than them for a little while, for the great purposes of our redemption?
But St. Peter speaks in terms that cannot well be misunderstood. Our Lord put this question to his Disciples; Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am? And they said, Some say thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, some Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Our Lord immediately replied, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven [Note: Mat 16:13-17]. Now, if Peter meant only to say that he was a good man, or a prophet, what was there in that which he might not see and know without any particular revelation of it to his soul?
St. Stephen is yet more strong and decisive: for when he was full of the Holy Ghost, he said, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God: upon which his hearers, filled with indignation, stoned him, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit [Note: Act 7:56; Act 7:59.]. Now is it not utterly unaccountable, that a man full of the Holy Ghost, when favoured with a vision of God, and of Jesus standing at the right hand of God, should, in the very hour of death, address himself to Jesus, and not unto the Father, and that too almost in the very words that Jesus himself had used when addressing his heavenly Father, if Jesus were not higher than any created being? If he did not see that the Son of man was also the Son of God, yea, God over all, equal with the Father, he was deservedly stoned to death, as the vilest blasphemer that ever lived upon the earth.
Who can see the Disciples of our Lord paying him such honour, and doubt what ideas they annexed to that lowly title, the Son of man?]
3.
What his enemies said of him
[There can be no doubt but that they understood the terms Son of man, and, Son of God, to be equivalent, and that, when used in their highest sense, they denoted equality with God himself. When our Lord stood before the supreme council of the Jews, he said to them, Hereafter shall the Son of man sit on the right hand of the power of God. Upon which they all exclaimed, Art thou then the Son of God? to which he answered, Ye say truly, that I am [Note: Luk 22:69-70.].
On another occasion we are told, that the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also, that God was his Father, making himself equal with God [Note: Joh 5:18.].
But the strongest testimony of all is, that his enemies actually put him to death for calling himself the Son of man. When the witnesses that appeared against him agreed not in their testimony, the high-priest asked him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. In these words he evidently referred to that glorious prophecy of Daniel, where the Son of man is represented as receiving from the Father an universal and everlasting dominion [Note: Dan 7:13-14.]. Instantly the high-priest rent his clothes, and said, What need we any further witnesses? Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye? And they all condemned him to be worthy of death [Note: Mar 14:61-64.]. Now, if the name Son of man did not import that he was God also, why did not our Lord rectify their mistake, and inform them that he did not intend to arrogate divine honour to himself, or to insinuate that he was any more than a common prophet? By this he would have invalidated in an instant the charge of blasphemy, and have obliged them either to release him, or to find some other pretext for putting him to death. But our Lord knew that they were right in their interpretation of his words; and therefore he submitted in silence to the sentence that was dictated by their blind infuriated zeal [Note: Thus it fully appears that the Son of man is none other than God manifest in the flesh. And though there are many passages that more directly prove this point, yet are these peculiarly strong, inasmuch as they prove the divinity of Christ from things which are spoken of him under that title, which most of all denotes his humanity.].]
It will be found an easier task to shew,
II.
For what purpose he came into the world
In our Lords assertion respecting this, we cannot fail to notice,
1.
The humiliating description which he gives of the human race
[Every living man is characterized by this description, That which was lost. All are by nature children of wrath [Note: Eph 2:3.]: and by practice they have aggravated their guilt and condemnation a thousand-fold. To understand the full import of this word, lost, let us reflect on the state of those that are already in hell, their guilt, their condemnation by the law, their banishment from the Divine presence, their inconceivable and irremediable misery, then we shall see our own state, with this only difference; that we are yet on mercys ground, and may have our sentence reversed, and our misery prevented; whereas they are gone beyond redemption: they are criminals already executed; and we are under the same sentence, uncertain whether we shall not the very next hour be called forth for execution, but with a pardon offered us on certain terms. O that we could realize this awful thought! ]
2.
The explicit declaration which he makes of the intent of his coming
[We should never have sought him: we are like a lost sheep, that never traces back its steps to the fold it has deserted. He therefore came to seek us. However solicitous we had been to avert the wrath of God, we never could have done it by any means within our own power. He therefore came to save us; to save us by his blood from the guilt of our sins; to save us by his Spirit from the power and pollution of them.
To form a just idea of our state by means of his advent, let us once more consider the state of those in hell. Let us suppose that he went down to hell itself, and there proclaimed liberty and salvation to those who would believe in him: the state of his auditors there would exactly represent our state: and if we do not take the same interest in the glad tidings that they would, it is because we do not feel ourselves so utterly lost as we really are.
But whether we will believe it or not, this is our state, and to deliver us from it was the great end of his advent. It was for this, that the Son of God humbled himself to become a son of man; and, if we will believe in him, he will exalt us children of men, that we may be sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty [Note: Joh 1:12.].]
Application [Note: The latter part of the subject is so plain and easy, that the youngest minister can be at no loss to illustrate it.]
1.
To those who deny that they are utterly lost and undone
[Produce one person that is not wholly lost, and we will shew you one that has nothing to do with Christ, any more than Satan himself has. It was only them that are lost that Christ came to seek and save. Let proud self-justifying sinners consider this.]
2.
To those who desire to obtain salvation
[The person that came to seek and save you was fully equal to the task. He was God as well as man; and therefore there can be no want of efficacy in his blood to pardon, or in his grace to sanctify, you. Trust in him, and he will prove himself able to save you to the very uttermost.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Making, Destroying, and Saving Man
Gen 1:26
If you could bring together into one view all the words of God expressive of his purposes concerning man, you would be struck with the changefulness which seems to hold his mind in continual uncertainty. He will destroy, yet the blow never falls; he will listen to man no more, yet he speeds to him in the day of trouble and fear; he will make an utter end, yet he saves Noah from the flood, and plucks Lot as a brand from the fire; his arm is stretched out, yet it is withdrawn in tender pity. So changeful is he who changeth not, and so fickle he in whom there is no shadow of turning! We cannot but be interested in the study of so remarkable a fact, for surely there must be some explanation of changefulness in Omniscience and variation of feeling in the Inhabitant of eternity. You never read of God being disappointed with the sun, or grieved by the irregularity of the stars. He never darkens the morning light with a frown, nor does he ever complain of any other of the work of his hands than man, made in his own image and likeness! he does indeed say that he will destroy “both man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air,” but it is wholly on account of man’s sin; for, as everything was made for man, so when man falls all that was made for him and centred in him goes down in the great collapse. Why should there be blithe bird-music in the house of death? Why should the earth grow flowers when the chief beauty has lost its bloom? So all must die in man. When he falls he shakes down the house that was built for him. So we come again to the solemn but tender mystery of God’s changefulness, and ask in wonder, yet in hope, whether there can be found any point at which are reconciled the Changeable and the Everlasting?
But let us be sure that we are not mistaken in the terms of the case. Is it true that there is any change in God? is not the apparent change in him the reflection of the real change that is in ourselves? I not only undertake to affirm that such is the case, but I go farther, and affirm that the very everlastingness of the Divine nature compels exactly such changes as are recorded in the Bible. If you say that man ought not to have been created as a changeable being, then you say in other words that man ought not to have been created at all. If you find fault with man’s constitution, you find fault with God, and if you find fault with God I have no argument with you. I take man as he is, and I want to show that Divine love must manifest itself, either in complacency or anger, according to the conduct of mankind.
I must remind you that this principle is already in operation in those institutions which we value most, and that it is a principle on which we rely for the good order, the permanent security, and the progress of society.
This principle is in constant operation in family life. By the gracious necessities of nature the child is tenderly beloved. The whole household is made to give way to the child’s weakness. The parents live their lives over again in the life of the child. For his sake hardship is undergone and difficulty is overcome. The tenderest care is not too dainty, the most persistent patience is not accounted a weariness. But sin comes: ingratitude, rebellion, defiance; family order is trampled on, family peace is violated; and in proportion as the parent is just, honourable, true, and loving, will he be grieved with great grief; he will not be petulant, irritable, or spiteful, but a solemn and bitter grief will weigh down his desolated heart. Then he may mourn the child’s birth, and say, with breaking and most tearful voice, “It had been better that the child had not been born.” Then still higher aggravation comes. Something is done which must be visited with anger, or the parent must lose all regard for truth and for the child himself. Now, all punishment for wrong-doing is a point on the line which terminates in death. Consider that well, if you please. It may, indeed, be so accepted as to lead to reformation and better life; but that does not alter the nature of punishment itself. Punishment simply and strictly as punishment is the beginning of death. Have you, then, changed in your parental love because you have punished your child? Certainly not. The change is not in you; it is in the child. If you had forborne to punish, then you would have lost your own moral vitality, and would have become a partaker in the very sin which you affected to deplore. If you are right-minded, you will feel that destruction is better than sinfulness; that sinfulness, as such, demands destruction; and if you knew the full scope of your own act you would know that the very first stripe given for sin is the beginning of death. But I remember the time when you caressed that child and fondled it as if it was your better life, you petted the child, you laid it on the softest down, you sang it your sweetest lullabies, you lived in its smiles; and now I see you, rod in hand, standing over the child in anger! Have you changed? Are you fickle, pitiless, tyrannical? You know you are not. It is love that expostulates; it is love that strikes. If that child were to blame you for your changefulness you would know what reply to make. Your answer would be strong in self-defence, because strong in justice and honour.
We have exactly the same thing in the larger family called Society. When a man is punished by society, it is not a proof that society is fickle in temper; it is rather a proof that society is so far conservative, and even everlasting in its substance, as to demand the punishment of every offender. Society is formed to protect and consolidate all that is good and useful in its own multitudinous elements, yet society will not hesitate to slay a man with the public sword, if marks of human blood are upon his hands. Is, then, society vengeful, malignant, or uneven in temper? On the contrary, it is the underlying Everlasting which necessitates all those outward and temporary changes which are so often mistaken as signs of fickleness and uncertainty. What the Everlasting cannot tolerate is dishonour, tyranny, wrong, or impureness in any degree. Society offers rewards today and deals out punishments tomorrow. At noon, society may crown you as a benefactor; at midnight, society may drag you forth as a felon: the same society not fickle or coy, but self-protecting and eternal in righteousness.
These side-lights may at least mitigate the gloom of the mystery with which we started. I want to make you feel that God’s changefulness, so called, is not arbitrary, but moral; that is to say, he does not change merely for the sake of changing, but for reasons which arise out of that very Everlastingness which seems to be impaired! Not to be angry with sin is to connive at it; to connive at sin is sinful; to be sinful is to be no longer Divine. When God is angry it is a moral fire that is burning in him; it is love in a glow of justice; it is his protest on behalf of those who may yet be saved from sin.
See how it is God himself that saves man! We trembled when he said he would destroy man, for we knew he had the power; and now that he says he will save man we know that his power of offering terms of salvation is none the less. If man can be saved, God will save him; but it is for the man himself to say whether he will be saved. “If any man open the door, I will come in to him.” “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” This is the voice that said, “I will destroy,” and the two tones are morally harmonious. Looking at the sin, God must destroy; looking at any possibility of recovery, God must save. “A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench.” Christ lives to save. He would no longer be Christ if human salvation were not his uppermost thought. His soul is in travail; he yearns over us with pity more than all human pitifulness; he draws near unto our cities and weeps over them. But he can slay! He can smite with his strong arm! His hand can lay hold on justice, and then solemn is the bitter end! O, my soul, make thy peace with God through Christ. It is his love that burns into wrath. He does not want to slay thee; he pities thee; he loves thee; his soul goes out after thee in great desires of love; but if thou wilt not come to his Cross, his arm will be heavy upon thee!
How true, then, is it that there is an important sense in which God is to us exactly what we are to him! “If any man love me, I will manifest myself to him.” That is the great law of manifestation. Have I a clear vision of God? Then am I looking steadily at him with a heart that longs to be pure. Can I not see him? Then some secret sin may be holding a veil before my eyes. I have changed, not God. When I seek him he will be found of me; but if I desire him not he will be a God afar off!
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Chapter 2
Christ’s Object As a Preacher. Evangelical Preaching Christ’s Injunction to the Church Charming the Poor By Music the Difficulty of Salvation
Text: “To save that which was lost.”
The preacher is bound to set before himself a distinct object. The question which he ought to propose is this: What is my purpose in this discourse? Is it to instruct, convince, or comfort? Is it to convince sinners, or is it to edify believers? He must be perfectly familiar with the end at which he is aiming, or he will spend his time in fighting uncertainly, and in beating the air. The preacher will always find his object in his text. What was Jesus Christ’s object as a preacher? To save men. If that was the object of the Master, should the servant have any lower end in view?
But let us look at that word “save.” Like many other simple-looking words, it is very large in its application. It is not to be limited to one point. Men are to be saved from sin certainly primarily. But does the word “save” end there? Men are to be saved from ignorance, to be saved from error, to be saved from the bondage of the letter, from false worship, from self-confidence, from despair; so that this word “save,” which looked so little and so simple, stretches itself over our whole life of guilt, action, ignorance, behaviour, spirit. It includes in its holy purpose the whole circle of our being. I wish we could thoroughly understand this, and we should be more liberal and more just in our construction of what our ministers are endeavouring to do for us. When the preacher is refuting a false doctrine he is as certainly endeavouring to save men as when he stands by the very cross of the one Saviour, and speaks of nothing but the reconciling and all-cleansing blood. Men say to us, “Preach the simple gospel.” What is simple? and why should there be any difficulty about the simple gospel? When we preach apparently otherwise it is not because the gospel is wanting in simplicity, but because sin, vice, is manifold in its duplicity. The ten commandments are not ten because virtue is divisible into ten mysteries: they are ten because vice has a tenfold aspect, and must be met in every phase and attitude.
Our whole conception about preaching, so as to save men, needs enlargement and purification. Only let a man cry out for the space of half an hour, “Come to Jesus, come to Jesus, just now; come to Jesus, just now;” and he is thought to be preaching the gospel. To me he would be preaching no gospel. I am so constituted that I must instantly ask him to define his terms. “Come ” What is the meaning of that short word? Is it easy, is it a child’s walk, is it a luxury, is it a natural expression of the intellect and conscience and will? Why come? And how? Thus that which appeared to be so simple, small as a grain of mustard seed, when I plant it or sow it, it becomes a great tree, outbranching widely, and shaking questions and difficulties from every twig of the gigantic fabric. So I must ask for definition of terms.
Another man might preach to me and never mention the name of Jesus, and yet he would so preach as to make me unhappy; he would so deal with my life, showing its mystery, its pain, its poverty, its self-helplessness, as to make me cry out, “What shall I do?” And when he had wrought that question in me, and brought it to my tongue, then he would unfold the infinite and unsearchable riches of Christ.
Now this was Jesus Christ’s method of gaining his object. When I say “his method” I speak a millionfold term. When you heard him, though it were the thousandth time, you felt as. if you had never heard him before so new was he, vital, true, sympathetic, beautiful. The chariots of God are twenty thousand. Does he always ride forth in one chariot, so that you can tell it is the King by the chariot he rides in? No. Twenty thousand and thousands of thousands are his angels. So in the ministry of Christ I find innumerable methods, all converging upon one object. Watch that marvellous ministry. Jesus Christ told stories about a man who had two sons, about a man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, about a woman who took leaven and hid it in three measures of meal, about innumerable other things, and he so told them that little children quickened their ears, and looked with eyes full of wonder. The busy man stopped with foot half way up in the air to hear what next he would say with that magical, mysterious, musical voice. He created fine fancies of the mind, as, for example, “A sower went forth to sow,” “The kingdom of heaven is like to a net thrown into the midst of the sea.” He asked questions. When they would not admit him into the house as a preacher, he went in as a doctor. Every preacher ought to be a healing man, a physician. He said, “If you will not have me as the Son of God, come to reveal the Father where is your poor child that is sick? I will raise the little life up again.” And once he was so busy breaking bread that you would have thought he was the world’s housekeeper. Martha never was so busy as was her Lord just then, and for what purpose? What does he mean by all this? to save men, to get a hold over them, to win their attention, to conciliate their confidence, and then to open their wondering and delighted eyes to the light of the kingdom of God.
Sometimes we must adopt a roundabout method in trying to secure our object as Christian teachers. Instead of sharply clashing with prejudice, we might diffidently ask a question. Instead of bluntly asking a man about his Christian condition, we might delicately ask him about his children. Instead of giving a man a tract, we might sometimes politely offer him the paper of the day. Only we should have our object always in view, and it should always be sovereign, supreme, holy. This was the Apostle Paul’s method. He tells us exactly how it was with him in his ministry. “I made myself servant unto all that I might gain the more. Unto the Jew I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews. To them that are under the law as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak. I am made all things unto all men, that I might by all means save some.” When will the church learn this great lesson? The church is not fertile in invention; the church is not quick and full in suggestion and adaptation; the church is stiff, iron, stolid, wanting in elasticity and power of accommodation to the ever-changing phases and necessities of the time. If Paul had lived now how would he have modernised that paragraph in his letter to the Corinthians? “To the outsiders I became an outsider, to the musical I became musical, to the scientific I became scientific, to the man of the world I became as a man of the world, that by all means I might gain, save, bless, some.” And to what pass have we come? This “If they will not come to me, I will not go to them. I have my church, and my service at eleven in the morning and seven in the evening, and if they will not come to me I will not go to them. I have so many hymns and prayers and readings. I begin at a point and end at a point, and I do the same all the year round; my programme never changes. If they come, so be it; if they stay away, so be it.” An un-Christly speech, an ungodly and unholy position!
Look at this matter in a practical light. As a matter of fact, nine-tenths of the places of worship in London on Sunday night are almost deserted. Some of them are perhaps half full, in others there is what is called “a nice sprinkling.” In many churches there are less than fifty men of any size and force. Now there must be a reason for this. Let us faithfully ask, What is that reason? It is either that the attraction at church is very poor, or that there is a greater attraction elsewhere. Let me, as a Christian teacher, ask myself the question, seriously, Is the singing cheerless, is the preaching dull, is the service too long, would some other method better gain the attention of the population than the method which I am adopting? If men will not have my methods ought I not to change them? If they would like a parable, a story, a high imagining about the kingdom of heaven, ought I not to endeavour to supply these? If I cannot supply them, ought I not to retire and make way for the man who can? What changes can I introduce so as to gain some and save some? This is the question which the church dare not ask.
What is the remedy for all this? Christ gives us the remedy. We must leave the ninety-and-nine and go out. I stop there, Go out. O wondrous word! Go out. How far! Far as the prodigal has strayed! Go out from old methods, old usages, old conventionalities, old habitudes, old institutionalisms. Go out. How far how long? Until we find it. The church dare not do this; the church is paralysed with timidity. Sydney Smith said the church was dying of dignity; its dignity is now drivelled down into timidity. Think of those great churches I mean by churches all kinds of places of worship standing nearly empty every Sunday night in the year. Why not have music in them? Music would fill them; music would startle the old echoes; music would make the walls wonder what was the matter with them. Music God’s first-born angel! Try music. Why not have lectures? Observe, where there is no need of these things I do not advocate their introduction. If a church can be filled because a man is going to read a chapter of the Bible, and do nothing else, I should say that was the highest triumph of modern civilisation. If a church can be filled to hear a sermon preached about Jesus and sin, and truth, and God, and Heaven, so much the better; but when you find the people running away from you, abandoning your churches, leaving your finest edifices almost wholly empty, then leave the ninety-and-nine old methods, plans, programmes, and go out after that which is lost, and do not come back until you have found it.
How many noble church organs are standing dumb to-night that might be doing the work of God in the minds and hearts of the people. They will be used here and there for the purpose of eking out the ebbing life of some aged and asthmatic common metre tune mumbled by persons of decaying respectability, when they might be interpreting infinite and thrilling melodies to hearts in which baffled hope is dying. God made the organ! He who orders the winds out of their caves, and makes the ocean roar its hoarse amen, fills the air with birds of varying note, and makes the rills drip music as they fall down from mountain slopes, and sends the wide rivers singing to the sea, there to merge their liquid treble in creation’s ancient bass he whose deafening thunders seem to shake the universe, he, mighty God, put it into the mind and heart of man to make that king of instruments, the organ, which can announce a jubilee or bless a mourner’s heart. Yet we lock it up and hide the key, and must not have too much of it, though there be poor people to-night in many of these places round about us who would be glad to come in and hear the thousand-throated instrument, speaking its gospel of soothing and hope. Some persons would rather hear themselves humming and booming like lost bumble bees than they would admit stringed instruments into the house” of God. I say let us by all means seek to save some. If they will not hear the preacher preach, let them hear the organ play. If they will not hear the preacher theologise, let them hear the lecturer expound and instruct and startle by many a happy suggestion. By all means let us try to save some. You will be forgiven on the last day if you can say that you did stretch a point here and there, and you did really venture to do something irregular and almost eccentric in order to charm the drunkard from the public-house, and the sensualist from his den of iniquity, and the wayfarer from his strolling, and the prodigal from his wilderness. You meant it well. What will he say Man of the parable and the story, and the bread-baking and the child-kissing what will he say? “Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful according to thy light and opportunity; enter into the joy of thy Lord.”
Many of you could help very much in gaining some and in saving others. Why don’t you who have this gift of preaching by music take the schoolroom belonging to your several churches, and invite the poor old people round about who would not be admitted” into concerts, to hear any kind of music you could give them? a nice bright little song, sometimes a hymn, put in by stealth, as it were. What kind of people? Why, just the poorest old crones you could gather nobody to come in who had the slightest trace of respectability about him, the door shut in the face of every man who has one sixpence to rub upon another. Poor old bodies, with their knitting, it may be, or their sewing poor worn mothers, with two or three children in their arms, who have not seen their husbands for many hours get them in. But perhaps they will they will spoil the place? Let them spoil it. I like to see a place spoiled in that sort of way. “Lord, here is the place, unspoiled; no paint scratched off, no varnish interfered with, every chair in a nice cleanly condition. This is how we kept our place, but we took care never to open the church night or day more than we could help.” What will he say? May I not be there to hear!
Now what I have said about one department outside the church, namely, music, I would say, if time permitted, about fifty others, and ask you music people, literary people, persons who can contribute towards the enjoyment of the people, especially the poor I would have you say, each of you, “What is my talent, and how can I spend it so as to save some?” I want allies of all kinds, lieutenants big and little; I want men to be doing all they can, each in his own way, and all meaning the same thing, namely, the gaining and saving of men. I take Jesus Christ’s idea of preaching, which he turned into the widest institution upon the earth. It included feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, healing those that were ill, working miracles, preaching the truth, revealing God, pronouncing benedictions, denouncing public sins, encouraging the young and the old a great ministry. He who built that great sky, and filled it with worlds so many and so bright, must have grand and gracious conceptions about any ministry that is meant to teach and save and bless the immortal soul.
Why is it so difficult to save men? We say, “If this gospel is of God surely it will at once vindicate itself and save the souls of them who hear it.” The salvation of men is the supreme difficulty of God. The question you have just put would be to me the most disturbing and distressing of all questions if we could not relieve it by others which do not come strictly within the power of reason to answer. Why do men need to hear more than one appeal to come to the Saviour according to the way he has laid down himself in his blessed word and testimony? One would suppose that, with a divine message, a man had simply to stand at the place of the concourse of people, and say, “This is God’s message,” and instantly all hearts would yield their homage and their love. How can we relieve the fearful mystery? by suggesting, or rather calling to mind, the fact, how difficult it is to do right in any direction. Do you know how difficult it is to get any man to be thoroughly clean? I do not say difficult to get a man to wash his hands, but to be thoroughly clean and to love cleanliness. Do you know how exceedingly difficult it is to get some persons to be punctual? Why, to be punctual they do not know the meaning of the word. You say, “Eight o’clock is the time.” They will be there at half-past nine, or they will forget the appointment altogether, or they will come the day after. Do you know how exceedingly difficult it is to get some people to pay their debts? To pay they are not to the manner born.
Now I use these outside illustrations, only on an inferior level, to lead you up step by step to the crowning difficulty. Do you know how difficult it is to get a man to say absolutely what he means? When Jesus Christ said, “Let your yea be yea, and your nay nay,” he seemed to be talking a very small kind of talk, but where is the man whose yes means yes without a taint or shadow of no in it? Have you thought of that? Where is the man whose speech is dazzlingly true? The most of us speak what is generally true, relatively true, substantially true, true with a grain of salt, with a mental reservation, with a suppressed parenthesis but dazzlingly true, transparently and gleamingly true! If it be so difficult in these matters to do that which is right, can you not see, through them, how possibly it may be the supreme difficulty of the universe to save men? Jesus Christ said, “Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life.” The great difficulty for us is to do right in any way. Now, if you could show me that it is so natural and so easy for men to do right in every other way that they ought to accept the gospel if it were true, I would say you had urged against this divine testimony a very powerful argument. But the whole head is sick, the whole heart is faint. Through and through, up and down, we are wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; the right hand is crippled, and the left hand is withered, and the head is giddy, and the heart irregular, and the foot skilled in going backwards. What wonder, when the grand climax, the sovereign appeal is reached, to surrender to God and to love him, we should come upon the supreme difficulty!
What, then, is left the preacher to do to himself, and to those who hear him? to proclaim the gospel, to speak of human sin and Christ’s precious blood, to announce the grand catastrophe of evil, and the grander remedy of God’s holiness in Christ. That is all he can do except to announce the consequences of the rejection or acceptance of his ministry. The rejection “The wicked shall be turned into hell, with all the nations that forget God. These shall go away into everlasting punishment. There is no more sacrifice for sins. The door will be shut. Many will say to me, Lord, open unto us, but I will say, I never knew you. Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” And the minister dare not trifle with these terms. They are not given to him to gloss, amend, soften, but to utter with self-suppression and with tearfulness. The result of acceptance “Ye shall find rest unto your souls. Your sins, which are many, will all be forgiven you. Let the wicked turn unto the Lord, for he will abundantly pardon. Great peace have they that love thy law.”
Thus promise after promise must the speaker pronounce to them who receive the word with joy. This I would humbly, reverently do now. My friend, are you hearing the gospel for the thousandth time, and yet have not received it? Are you going to reject it now? This may be your last visit to God’s house. Think! Are you going to receive Christ to-night, saying, “Well, he endeavoured by all means to save some, he shall save me. Lord, receive me, save me; open thine arms, and I will flee to thee”? Are you going to say that? There is joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner that repenteth.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
Ver. 10. See Mat 18:11 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
10. ] For, the greater sinner he may have been, the more does he come under the description of those (sheep) whom the good Shepherd came to seek and save ( Mat 15:24 ).
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Luk 19:10 . A great key-word to Christ’s idea of His own mission a Saviour. , the lost, a pathetic name for the objects of Christ’s quest; its shades of meaning to be learned from the parables in Luke 15 : lost as a sheep, a coin, a foolish son may be lost. Here the term points to the social degradation and isolation of the publicans. They were social lepers. With reference to the conduct of Jesus in this case Euthy. Zig. remarks: “It is necessary to despise the little scandal when a great salvation comes to any one and not to lose the great on account of the little” ( , , ( sic ) ). The significance of Christ choosing a publican for His host in a town where many priests dwelt has been remarked on. Art. “Publican” in Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
the Son of man. See App-98.
is come = came.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
10.] For, the greater sinner he may have been, the more does he come under the description of those (sheep) whom the good Shepherd came to seek and save (Mat 15:24).
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Luk 19:10. , that which was lost) viz. which had been lost (undone), both in the way of a loss negatively (amissionem, a losing by carelessness or inadvertence) and in the way of positive destruction (interitum, death, ruin). For the participle [that which was both lost and destroyed] corresponds to the two verbs, , to seek and to save. It was for this purpose that the Saviour came to the sinner, to his house.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Son of man
(See Scofield “Mat 8:20”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Cur Deus Homo
For the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost.Luk 19:10.
I
The Lost
1. We find in our text Christs estimate of the condition of humanity. It is something that is lost. No doubt our spiritual condition may be put in various ways. We are guilty creatures: we are depraved creatures: we are condemned creatures: in all these fashions, and more, it may be possible truly and justly to describe our spiritual state, and express those things about us which make us so greatly in need of a part in Christs great salvation. But probably there is no single word which could be employed that would give so complete and comprehensive a description of man as he is by nature, as to say that he is lost. All error from the right way, all distance from our Heavenly Fathers house, all destitution, and danger, and impossibility of return, and imminence of final ruin, are conveyed in that one word, lost! Trace that words meaning out into its various shades and ramifications, and you will find that it implies, as no other can, all that we are, all that makes our need of the SaviourHis sacrifice, His Spirit, His intercession.
2. We are lost, as the wayfarer is lost, because we have gone away from our Fathers house, and we are wandering in the wildernessin a wilderness where there is no supply for our souls greatest needs, where we are surrounded by perils, and whence we can of ourselves find no way to return. We are lost, as the great ship is lost, for we have made shipwreck of our best interests, and we drive, without a helm, over the trackless sea of life; and, away from Jesus, we know no haven for which to steer. We are lost like the guilty child that by reckless sin has broken his fathers heart; for, evil by nature, and worse by daily temptation and transgression, we are, left to ourselves, lost to holiness, to happiness, to heaven, to God. We have lost our birthright, lost our Father, lost our home, lost our way, lost our hope, our time, our souls. And what loss there is in our unimproved and unsanctified powers and faculties! How these souls are lost, in the sense that so little is made of what was meant for so much; lost as the untilled field is lost; as the flower which no man sees is lost; as the house built and then left empty is lost; as the ship which rots in harbour is lost. Are not these souls made for Gods glory: ought not every power about them to conduce to that? What glory ought we to have rendered to God; what good to man: what knowledge and happiness to ourselves? And, if a souls whole powers and energies are given to the mere supply of wants that end upon a present life and world,to the mere earning of the daily bread,is not that soul a noble thing lost, a noble machinery whose power is wasted and flung away? In all these senses and more, the Saviours description of us is a sound and just one.
3. But now, as we cannot be worse than lost, so our being lost, so far from shutting us out from the Saviour, forms a kind of strange door of entrance into the whole riches of His salvation,a kind of strange qualification for the Lord, who declares here that they whom He came into the world to seek and to save were only the lost.
My old friend, Dr. Duncan, used to say, For myself, I cannot always come to Christ direct, but I can always come by sin. Sin is the handle by which I get to Christ. I take a verse in which God has put Christ and sin together. I cannot always put my finger upon Christ, and say, Christ belongs to me. But I can put my finger upon sin, and say, Sin belongs to me. I take that word, for instance, The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost. Yes, lostIm lost. I put my finger upon that word, and say, Im the lost one; Im lost; and I cry out, What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. 1 [Note: C. J. Brown, The Word of Life, 236.]
II
Christ Came to Seek and to Save the Lost
1. Christ came to seek and to save the lost. This was the greatest mission ever recorded, and this the greatest missionary that ever came to the world. Men have gone forth on different missions. Alexander went forth to conquer the world; Csar went forth to subdue his enemies; Plato and Socrates went forth in search of knowledge; Columbus went forth to discover the new world; Stanley went forth to explore Africa. Warriors have gone forth to rout armies, and their march has been tracked with blood, misery, and death. Travellers have gone forth to explore distant regions, to see the wonders of nature and view the monuments of art. Philanthropists have gone forth on errands of mercy, but our blessed Saviour went forth from heaven and came into the world to submit to shame, to endure scourgings and to suffer death, for a race of guilty men, that He might be able to save them from their lost condition.
While he stayed in Shansi his thoughts dwelt much on the condition of the very poor, and on some permanent work in their behalf. The matter which weighs on me most heavily, he writes, is the question of what to do for the lost of Chinese society. These people are the very class Jesus would seek out to save, though I am not sure that the publicans and sinners were quite so low in the social scale as the lost I speak of. The people I refer to are simply the scum of Chinese society, chiefly opium-smokers and gamblers. I have sometimes thought I might or ought to give my whole time to do something for these lost.1 [Note: J. E. Hellier, Life of David Hill, 140.]
2. Christ is a divine-human Saviour. He is one that partakes both of the nature of God and of the nature of man. He comes into the world as the Mediator between God and man, and how fitly qualified He is for this part of His work in redemption. The knowledge which He possesses of the two parties to be reconciled is not merely abstract and theoretical; it is personal and experimental, for He is God. He knows God by experience, for He is God; He knows man by experience, for He is man. As God, He knows what is required and what is to be done to save the lost; as man, He knows how to apply this salvation to the hearts of men. As God, He requires an infinite sacrifice to justify the ungodly; as the God-man, He becomes the Substitute of the sinner and offers up Himself as this perfect sacrifice. Christ, as a Divine Person, possesses all the attributes and perfections of the Godhead. In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead. He is limitless in the extent of His power and wisdom, and in the sweep of His duration. He is without beginning of years or end of days. He is infinite, eternal and unchangeable in all the Divine attributes. But Christ was human as well as Divine. He was a man. In the text He calls Himself the Son of Man. This seems to have been His favourite appellation of Himself. He was Divine, the Son of God, equal with the Father; and at the same time, He was human; and He wanted to impress this truth upon the hearts and lives of the people. So He called Himself the Son of Man.
Malan read some portions of the First Epistle of Johnand proceeded to pray. There was something in his foreign accent and silvery voice most winning, as he rose from a few calm little sentences into glowing utterance. In spite of occasional difficulty in finding the precise words he wanted, it was like clear water sparkling in the sun. One expressionwhich came out in the midst of a strain of holy yet reverential familiarity of talk with Heaven, as if the thin veil could be seen throughI can never forget: Lord Jesus, everlasting Son of the Father, come near to us as the Son of Man, and lay Thy warm fleshy hand upon us, that we may feel it.1 [Note: David Brown, Memoir of John Duncan, 143.]
3. He comes to seek the lost.
(1) Christ goes in quest of men.He had His eye on Zacchus when he climbed into the sycomore tree. He knew where the objects of His pity were to be found, and directed His course and shaped His plans that He might meet with them. He did not sit in solemn pomp, did not dwell in quiet glory, awaiting the approach of the miserable and guilty. His love was not of the easy nature that merely listens to the cry of woe and want, that stretches out the hand when power is supplicatedbut of the nobler kind that goes after the lost and ruined. He was the missionary of salvation, not only its magnificent dispenser.
A story is told of Garibaldi that in one of his arduous campaigns, one evening when he and his troops were preparing to encamp for the night, they came upon a shepherd who told Garibaldi that he had lost a lamb and was going out to search for it. The general gave permission to his followers to go out and search for the lost lamb, but, as darkness fell, they turned in tired for the nights rest. Not so, however, with the leader himself, for in the early morning, Garibaldi emerged from the mist carrying the lost lamb.
O Shepherd with the bleeding Feet,
Good Shepherd with the pleading Voice,
What seekest Thou from hill to hill?
Sweet were the valley pastures, sweet
The sound of flocks that bleat their joys,
And eat and drink at will.
Is one worth seeking, when Thou hast of Thine
Ninety and nine?
How should I stay My bleeding Feet,
How should I hush My pleading Voice?
I who chose death and clomb a hill,
Accounting gall and wormwood sweet,
That hundredfold might bud My joys
For loves sake and good will.
I seek My one, for all there bide of Mine
Ninety and nine.1 [Note: Christina G. Rossetti.]
A beautiful scene is that which shows us the Bishop seeking for one of his flock, a little girl who had wandered into the wilderness. Jeannie de Nord was a child of ten years, with a complexion scarcely darker than an ordinary English gipsy. Her father, old de Nord, had left her with an aunt while he went away some distance to hunt. The aunt was neglectful of her little charge, and Jeannie unable to bear this started in search of her father. So little did the aunt care that two days elapsed before the word spread that Jeannie was lost.
No sooner did the Bishop hear of it than, like the true shepherd he was, he started with others in search of the little wanderer. They pushed on over the snow, following the girls tracks, for she had taken her snow-shoes with her. She had no food or blanket, and the nights were cold, and starving wolves roamed the forests. And where was Jeannie? She had reached her fathers abandoned camp one night, cold and tired. Groping about, she found his gun, which had been left there, and with the cunning of the wild she discharged the weapon, and from the spark thus obtained started a fire, which kept her warm through the night. All the next day she wandered in vain, searching for her father, and, tired and hungry, crept back to the abandoned camp and fell asleep. When she next opened her eyes, it was to see standing before her the tall figure of the anxious Bishop, and to feel his strong loving arms around her as he lifted her from the ground.
The shepherd had found the lost lamb, but oh, at what a cost! The Bishops clothes were soaking from the overflowing streams they had crossed as they wandered about, and he could hardly reach Fort Simpson, so great were the cramps which seized him, and for days he endured great suffering. But what did it matter? Little Jeannie de Nord was safe, and none the worse for her experience.1 [Note: An Apostle of the North: Memoirs of Bishop Bompas, 175.]
(2) That quest is continuous.The quest is not exhausted by one act, or satisfied with one response. It is not merely that God seeks us in the hour of our proud and vain revolt, when our wilful heart bids Him a proud defiance. He does seek us then, and, by the thousand ingenuities of a love that is deeper than we can ever know, strives to woo us to reciprocal love and cleansing affection. But He goes infinitely farther than that. He is ever seeking us in the deeper reaches of our life, in its innermost and most sacred shrines, that He may find us in our largest capacities and win us absolutely to Himself. Every day of our life, when by some disloyalty of our heart we stray the least bit from Him; when by some unholy thought our mind is stained and made unworthy to be His temple, when by some act of selfishness the old bad life has a momentary supremacy, He quickly follows in pursuit of us to call and bring us home. He lights His light in our conscience and smites us with shame; He reveals His love and melts us into cleansing tears; He reveals His face and compels us by the sweet compulsion of a great attraction.
That was the Shepherd of the flock; He knew
The distant voice of one poor sheep astray;
It had forsaken Him, but He was true,
And listend for its bleating night and day.
Lost in a pitfall, yet alive it lay,
To breathe the faint sad call that He would know;
But now the slighted fold was far away,
And no approaching footstep soothed its woe.
Oh! would He now but come and claim His own,
How more than precious His restoring care!
How sweet the pasture of His choice alone,
How bright the dullest path if He were there!
How well the pain of rescue it could bear,
Held in the shelter of His strong embrace!
With Him it would find herbage anywhere,
And springs of endless life in every place.
And so He came and raised it from the clay,
While evil beasts went disappointed by.
He bore it home along the fearful way
In the soft light of His rejoicing eye.
And thou fallen soul, afraid to live or die
In the deep pit that will not set thee free,
Lift up to Him the helpless homeward cry,
For all that tender love is seeking thee.1 [Note: F. W. Faber.]
Many a time it is in strange places that Christ comes upon His own. One tells of her finding in an artless story. Her heart had been touched but not melted, till one day in the garden she saw an apple tree in blossom, and as she stood under it she was flooded with the thought of the love of God. So it became true of her:
Beneath the apple tree
There I espoused thee,
There I gave thee my hand,
And there thou wast redeemed,
Where thy mother was betrayed.
Another heart, also stirred by desire, resolved at last that she would read her Bible straight through till she found her Saviour. At last she came upon the words, I am the way, and there her wanderings ended. She had been found. A saint tells how the Shepherd found her in an Andalusian convent, where the fountain was the only moving sounding thing in the dead noon-day silence, when there was not a breath to stir the lemon tree or pomegranate bush. Of another, it is told that he was found out by his Master while committing robbery. Another was found by Jesus Christ when he was breaking the heart of his old mother by mockeries of religion. A preacher, well known in his day, was found when listening to an old melodrama that ended with a sailors drinking a glass of gin before he was hung, and saying for his last words, Heres to the prosperity of the British nation and the salvation of my immortal soul. Down went the curtain, and down went the man, for he ran home with all his might. He had been struck to the quick by the words, the salvation of my immortal soul, and in his chamber Christ found him.1 [Note: W. Robertson Nicoll, Sunday Evening, 33.]
After the lecture in the dissecting-room in the Glasgow University one day a student, usually all vivacity and chatter, was observed by his friend to be very silent. Asked why, he said, A curious thing happened in the laboratory to-day. Pointing to the body on which we were working, the professor suddenly said, Gentlemen, that was once tenanted by an immortal soul. The young man had never had a thought like this about the bodies he was dissecting before. So Christ startled the world. He came into its dissecting-rooms and operating theatres, its laboratories of industry, its barracks and camps, where men were holding life cheap and exploiting thousands, for the sake of gain or fame for the few, and He said, Gentlemen, every man and woman, ay, and little child on earth, is an immortal soul and of infinite value to God the heavenly Father. That was Christs discovery of the individual to the surprise and astonishment of the world.2 [Note: R. J. Drummond, Faiths Certainties, 328.]
4. He comes to save the lost. It is interesting to discover that the word salvation as first used by Jesus did not have a distinctly religious meaning. He used it of those whom He healed of bodily sickness. Daughter, said the Master to the invalid woman who pressed through the throng to touch the hem of His garment, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And it is written in St. Marks Gospel, They laid the sick in the market places, and besought him that they might touch if it were but the border of his garment: and as many as touched him were made whole. Made whole in these verses translates the same Greek word as is sometimes translated saved. Saved folks were folks who were made whole, filled full of health, fulfilling their purpose. Up to this day, Zacchus had been like a sick man, just a fragment of a man, a man who was able to use only a part of himself; just as a sick man is a man who cannot use his eyes, or his limbs, or his head, or whatever part of him is afflicted. When the sick man is made whole he lives through all his being; he no longer uses only a portion of his body; every organ fulfils its functions perfectly. Zacchuss conscience was diseased. When Jesus touched him that day, his conscience began to work, and, with the conscience in perfect health, and the love in him claiming those who had need of him, the publican began to live through and through all his manhood. Henceforth no part was diseased, no organ was atrophied; he was a whole man. This then is Jesus idea of salvation. It is not a matter of the future, it concerns the present; it is not rescue from a future hell, but rescue from a present self; it is not rescue for a future heaven, it is rescue for a present service. Salvation is living as a son through all ones being; salvation is living as a soul for other souls.
A priest had occasion once to interview a great doctor about the terrible case of a woman of high social position who had become the slave of drink. The doctor was a man of great force and ability, and of unwearying devotion; but he was what would be called a sceptic and a materialist. The priest asked if the case was hopeless; the great doctor shrugged his shoulders. Yes, he said, pathologically speaking, it is hopeless; there may be periods of recovery, but the course that the case will normally run will be a series of relapses, each more serious and of longer duration than the last. Is there no chance of recovery on any line that you could suggest? said the priest. The two looked at each other, both good men and true. Well, said the doctor after a pause, this is more in your line than mine; the only possible chance lies in the will, and that can only be touched through an emotion. I have seen a religious emotion successful, where everything else failed. The priest smiled and said, I suppose that would seem to you a species of delusion? You would not admit that there was any reality behind it? Yes, said the doctor, a certain reality, no doubt; the emotional processes are at present somewhat obscure from the scientific point of view; it is a forlorn hope. Yes, said the priest, and it is thus the kind of task for which I and those of my calling feel bound to volunteer.1 [Note: A. C. Benson, From a College Window, 218.]
(1) He saves by pardon.It is done, first of all, by the complete pardon of all the sinners sins. The very instant that a man trusts Christ with all his heart, the past is blotted out as if it had never existed: all the sins he has ever done in thought, in word, in deed, however crimson in dye, go at once; they are sunk as in the sea, never to be found again. And this is done upon this one solitary condition, that the man believes in Jesus; and even that is not a condition, for He that bade him believe enables him to believe, and gives him the faith which saves his soul.
Men are not, according to the gospel system, pardoned on account of their belief of the pardon, but they are sanctified by a belief of that pardon, and unless the belief of it produces this effect, neither the pardon nor the belief are of any use. The pardon of the Gospel is a spiritual medicine: faith is nothing more than the taking of that medicine; and if the spiritual health or sanctification is not produced, neither the spiritual medicine nor the taking of the medicine are of any avail; they have failed of their object.1 [Note: Letters of Thomas Erskine of Linlathen, i. 376.]
(2) He saves by bestowal of a new nature.From the moment that a man believes in Jesus his nature becomes different from what it was before; he receives a new heartanother influence takes possession of him; another love engrosses him. When a man is absorbed by some master-passion, what a different man he becomes! The passion for wealth will work marvels; we have known idle persons become very diligent, and profuse voluptuaries become even self-denying and mortifying to their flesh, in their ambition to acquire riches. Now, God gives us another passion, the passion of love to God in Christ, and that becomes a master-principle and rules the entire man. He who loved self now loves God and lives for Him.
One part of the good news which Christ told us about God was that God would free us from evil, awake in us a new life, and open before us boundless possibilities of growth; and He showed us in His own life that men could be freed from evil. He lived before us the new life; and He made manifest the spiritual perfection of man. This, then, said those who followed Him, and notably St. Paul, this which God did in His Son Jesus, He will do in all His other sons. Into this perfect life which was made manifest in Christ, we are all to growgrowing up into Him in all things who is the Head, even Christ.2 [Note: Stopford A. Brooke, Sunshine and Shadow, 105.]
Cur Deus Homo
Literature
Alexander (W.), Leading Ideals of the Gospels, 83.
Austin (G. B.), The Beauty of Goodness, 138.
Benson (R. M.), The Final Passover, i. 79.
Boyd (A. K. H.), Counsel and Comfort Spoken from a City Pulpit, 180.
Brandt (J. L.), Soul Saving, 139.
Burrell (D. J.), Christ and Men, 138.
Calthrop (G.), The Lost Sheep Found, 3
Chafer (L. S.), True Evangelism, 13.
Coyle (R. F.), The Church and the Times, 33.
Davidson (R. T.), The Christian Opportunity, 115.
Ellison (H. J.), Sermons and Addresses on Church Temperance Subjects, 36.
Hall (J. V.), The Sinners Friend, 21.
Kuegele (F.), Country Sermons, New Ser., v. 106.
Little (W. J. K.), The Hopes and Decisions of the Passion, 1.
MClelland (T. C.), The Mind of Christ, 85, 99.
Macleod (A.), Talking to the Children, 119.
Moody (A.), Buy the Truth! 117.
Morgan (G. C.), Christian Principles, 69.
Morris (A. J.), The Open Secret, 142.
Morrison (G. H.), The Footsteps of the Flock, 197.
Neville (W. G.), Sermons, 264.
Nicoll (W. R.), Sunday Evening, 29.
Parker (J.), The City Temple, i. 74.
Pulsford (J.), Loyalty to Christ, ii. 321.
Robertson (A. T.), The Teaching of Jesus, 100.
Thompson (J. R.), Burden Bearing, 121.
Thorne (H.), Notable Sayings of the Great Teacher, 54.
Whitefield (G.), Sermons, 401.
Christian World Pulpit, xxxiii. 36 (E. Johnson); xxxvi. 33 (G. MacDonald); lii. 120 (R. Thomas); lviii. 322 (S. Chisholm); lxvi. 124 (W. J. K. Little); lxviii. 385 (R. Gregory).
Churchmans Pulpit: Christmas Day, ii. 258 (R. Gregory); Sermons to the Young, xvi. 519 (J. S. Maver).
Conversations with Christ, 203.
Homiletic Review, xlviii. 371 (R. T. Davidson).
Preachers Magazine, vi. 125 (A. E. Gregory); xi. 496 (M. G. Pearse).
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
Luk 5:31, Luk 5:32, Luk 15:4-7, Luk 15:32, Eze 34:16, Mat 1:21, Mat 9:12, Mat 9:13, Mat 10:6, Mat 15:24, Mat 18:11, Rom 5:6, 1Ti 1:13-16, Heb 7:25, 1Jo 4:9-14
Reciprocal: Gen 37:16 – seek Psa 119:176 – seek Isa 62:12 – Sought out Jer 23:6 – Judah Eze 34:11 – search Mic 4:6 – and I Mat 21:31 – the publicans Mar 2:16 – How Mar 2:17 – I came Luk 9:56 – the Son Luk 15:8 – and seek Luk 15:24 – he Luk 19:5 – for Luk 23:43 – To day Joh 1:43 – and findeth Joh 3:15 – not Joh 3:17 – but Joh 4:34 – My meat Joh 5:34 – that Joh 10:10 – I am Joh 12:47 – for Joh 21:16 – my sheep Act 11:14 – all 1Ti 1:15 – that 1Ti 6:17 – rich
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
CHRISTS MISSION OF MERCY
The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
Luk 19:10
The justification of Christs conduct towards Zacchus the publican is threefold:
I. His own nature as the Son of Man.This name frequently applied to Christ by Himself, never, in the Gospels, applied to Him by others, possessed peculiar force and peculiar advantages. It declared His special connection with the Jew, and also identified Him with the whole of humanity. The name is a Messianic name.
(a) The true Messiah is the Son of Man. No other could fulfil the promise made to Abraham.
II. The mans condition as being confessedly lost.
(a) The description Christ gives of the man, and of every man through sin, is perfect. In a single word, He comprehends all that is dark and terrible, all that is helpless and hopeless. The darkest features in human life, the most painful events in the world, are suggested to our minds.
(b) The description Christ gives is merciful. The Pharisees said sneeringly, A man that is a sinner. Christs simply says, That which was lost. There is room for pity, for sorrow, in the word Christ employs.
(c) The description Christ gives is hopeful. Humanity, as it hears that Christ concerns Himself with that which was lost, feels that the vilest and worst of its children may hope in Him.
III. His own mission, in its purpose and method.To seek and to save the lost. In calling Zacchus, in going to his house, Christ was simply doing what He came to do.
(a) The work of the Son of Man is saving man. He came for no other purpose.
(b) The method of Christ is fitted to the purpose of Christ.
Illustration
Whittier lamented the tendency to read the Bible as though every sentence was written in the past. Do not read it, He was able to save, because it is written, He is able to save. Sir James Young Simpson was a famous doctor, and always so cheered his patients on entering a sick room that some of them said the charm of his presence was worth more to them than all his medicines. A young man once asked him, What is the greatest discovery you ever made, Sir James? He thought he knew what the answer would be, but it was not what he thought. My young friend, was the reply, the greatest discovery I ever made was that I was a great sinner, and Jesus Christ is a great Saviour. I saw that I wanted a perfect righteousness to present me without fault before God, and this righteousness was nowhere to be found but in the Person of Jesus Christ. So said John Bunyan in Grace Abounding. And very touching are the words of Charles Dickens: Oh, may I, with a grey head, turn a childs heart to that Figure yet, and a childs trustfulness and confidence! The great novelist knew humanity well, and from such a confession of faith I think we may say he knew the Lord too, and acknowledged Him as the only Saviour.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
0
This verse states a truth that will apply generally.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Luk 19:10. For, etc. Comp. Mat 18:11, which the best authorities omit.
To seek, as a shepherd, comp. chap. Luk 15:4. It was the lost sheep of the house of Israel to whom the Lord was sent (Mat 15:24). Zaccheus was one of these, and acknowledging himself as such received the Master who was seeking him.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Observe,
1. A description of man’s deplorable state, and undone condition: he is lost.
2. The care of Christ to seek and recover man out of that lost state: The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost.
Learn,
1. That man’s condition is a lost condition, and every unregenerated man is a lost man; he has lost his God, his soul, his happiness, his excellency, his liberty, his ability.
2. The great errand that Christ came into the world upon, it was to seek and to save lost sinners: this he does by his blood, by his word, by his Spirit, and by his rod.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Jesus summarized the present purpose of the Son of Man’s ministry that found fulfillment in Zaccheus’ salvation (cf. 1Ti 1:15). Jesus had sought out many, especially among the lost sheep of Israel. He had saved those who would accept His gracious offer of salvation. This verse is the key verse in the third Gospel because it expresses concisely the ministry of Jesus as Luke presented it (cf. Luk 4:18-19; Luk 15:5; Luk 15:9; Luk 15:24).
"This whole incident is the epitome of the messianic mission described in Luke 4." [Note: Liefeld, "Luke," p. 1008.]