Our God Seeks
Friday Highlight – Our God Seeks
Zacchaeus… was a wee little man who climbed up a sycamore tree. Why? Because he wanted to get a glimpse of Jesus. This itinerant and traveling rabbi was leaving the religious elite speechless and healing the broken. The interaction that ensued is profound and important for two reasons. First, we see Zacchaeus’ response of humility, faith, and generosity. In the simplest of terms, his heart was changed that day by Jesus, and his life followed suit. Here’s what happened in Zacchaeus’ own words, “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.” This life change is truly remarkable when we understand the larger context. Tax collectors were largely despised because they were known to actively cheat and deceive travelers out of hard-earned money. Rome didn’t regulate what a tax collector charged, only that Rome got its required portion. Whatever the tax collector made on top of that was fair game. Tax collectors like Zacchaeus were incredibly corrupt, but in a moment all of that changed. And it changed because of Jesus. Zacchaeus’ life was changed because Jesus sought him out. A fact that Jesus illuminates in his statement, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. (Lk. 19:10)
This illustrates a crucial character trait of God; he seeks for us and desires to restore us. Without this seeking action, Zacchaeus would have been left on his own to hopelessly grope through life trying to find meaning, purpose, and contentment. The sad reality is that in his sin, there was no hope for him to find a lasting sense of any of those. But God sought him out. This isn’t new news about God; he has been seeking from the very beginning. Even before the fall, God created man out of an overflow of his love. We didn’t just appear. He was intentional in his design and creation of humanity. Then, when Adam and Eve rejected him, he sought them out. Genesis 3 tells us that God called out to them when they were hiding from him. He went looking for them. While Adam and Eve hid, God made the first move towards reconciliation. Sit and take in the grace of that truth. The One who was rejected made the first move towards the one who rejected Him so that the relationship could be restored.
Praise God that he seeks us out!
As you read through the book of Acts, you will come to see time and time again that changed people talk about who changed them. In this way, God invites us to join him in the seeking action. God loves us, seeks for us while we are in our rebellion, and invites us into mission with him to seek out others. Why? Because there is abundant life in him exclusively. And we must know him to experience that life. So, he seeks us out because we couldn’t find him on our own, and he wants to be known. In fact, that is his greatest desire.