Living on mission requires inviting those who are watching us to experience Jesus with us...

This week, we are looking at an event from the life of Jesus that is recorded for in the gospel of Luke. Wednesday, we looked on as a Jewish tax collector named Zaccheus responded to Jesus offer to hang out with Him by scurrying down the tree and warmly welcoming the opportunity to extend hospitality to Jesus. However, the crowds, upon witnessing this encounter between Jesus and Zaccheus began to loudly and publicly express their disapproval over Jesus wanting to hang out with people like Zaccheus.

 Zaccheus then responded not to the crowds, but to Jesus with a powerful statement: "Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much." Jesus pursuit of Zaccheus; Jesus desire to hang out with and develop a relationship with Zaccheus had changed Zaccheus heart. Instead of being driven to be greedy, Zaccheus was now driven to be generous. Instead of being driven to extort money from others, Zaccheus was driven to restore what he had taken by extortion to others. And to demonstrate his sorrow for wronging others, Zaccheus was willing to pay restitution equal to four times what he had extorted from others.

Zaccheus had been watching and hearing about Jesus. Zaccheus had heard about the message and teachings of Jesus, either first hand or through his tax collector friends. And what Zaccheus had seen and heard about Jesus as he watched Jesus led Zaccheus to want to get closer to Jesus. Zaccheus heart was changed as a result of Jesus offer to hang out and enter into relationship with him. And Zaccheus change of heart resulted in a change of the trajectory of his life that was moving away from God back to God. And that change of trajectory resulted in a change of behavior that lined up with the message and teachings of Jesus. Luke then records Jesus response to Zaccheus in Luke 19:9:

And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham."For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."

Now when Jesus says that salvation has come to this house because he too is a son of Abraham, He is not saying that Zaccheus experienced salvation as a result of what he had done for Jesus. Salvation had come to this house because Zaccheus responded to Jesus pursuit and desire to hang out and have relationship with Him by believing, trusting, and following Jesus; Zaccheus actions were the proof of what was produced as a result of his changing the trajectory of his life that was moving far from God back towards God by placing Jesus as large and in charge of his life so as to strive to follow His message and teachings.

Jesus then explains that this deliverance from a life separated from God as a result of selfishness and rebellion through Him was due to the fact that the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Now, I don’t know about you, but a natural question that arises here is “why is Jesus talking in the third person here? Why is Jesus referring to Himself as the Son of Man? What is that all about?

When Jesus refers to Himself as the Son of Man, Jesus is using the phrase to identify Himself with the promised Messiah that was predicted and proclaimed in Daniel 7:13. Here is what Daniel, over 500 years before the birth of Jesus, said about the Messiah:

"I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. "And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.

So when Jesus says that He is the Son of Man, He is identifying Himself as the Messiah that had come from God as God in a bod to usher in the kingdom of God here on earth. Jesus here is revealing the reality that as the Son of Man, Jesus came to seek and bring back to relationship with God those who were outsiders that were far from God and had been lost as a result of their selfishness and rebellion.

As the Son of Man, Jesus came on a mission to rescue from eternal separation from God and bring back to God those who were outsiders that were far from God as a result of their selfishness and rebellion. Jesus came on a mission to provide all humanity the opportunity to experience the forgiveness and the relationship with God that they were created for, but had been separated from as a result of their selfishness and rebellion, through His life, death, and resurrection by believing, trusting, and following Jesus as Lord and Leader.

And it is here, in this most unlikely encounter, that we see God reveal for us a timeless and true principle when it comes to living on mission. And that timeless and true principle is this: Living on mission requires inviting those who are watching us to experience Jesus with us. In order to embrace and engage in the mission that we have been given by God to be the vehicle that He uses to reveal His Son Jesus to others, we must invite those who are watching us to experience Jesus with us.

Living on mission requires that we create space for those who are watching us to hang out with us as we live our day to day lives so that they can experience Jesus as we experience Jesus. Living on mission requires that we invite those who are watching us to experience genuine and authentic community with us as we experience genuine and authentic community. And living on mission requires that we invite those who are watching us to explore faith during corporate gatherings and community group gatherings so that they can experience Jesus as we experience Jesus.

So here are some questions to consider: Are those around you who are watching you and are far from God comfortable enough with you to hang out with you? Are you inviting those who are watching you and are far from God to experience Jesus with you?