“Salvation Has Come To This House”

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Luke 19:1-10

It is the season of Christmas. We all have a renewed sense of gratitude to the amazing word God did to save us. From the time of God’s first image-bearers – Adam and Eve He has wanted a relationship with us. No matter that we don’t deserve it, He is the one who uses the Bible to tell us of the great lengths He has gone to be bring us to His side. He wants to restore the relationship with us. He did that by sending His Son Jesus “to seek and to save the lost.” Without the birth of Jesus, and without His willingness to die to pay the price for our sin and to bring us to God, we would have nothing to celebrate at Christmastime.

So this Christmas, let’s be thankful that God took extreme measures by sending Jesus to reclaim our fellowship with Him. Although we once were lost, because of Jesus we have been found!

Christmas is about God taking extreme measures to reclaim those who were lost.

Our Daily Bread – December 19, 2017