Jesus and Zacchaeus | Luke 15:1-7, Luke 19:1-10 | TJ Torgerson
Jesus came to proclaim good news to the poor, to usher in the era of God’s favor (Luke 4).
Have you ever wondered how he did it? What was his method (if he had one)? How did he become the most influential person in all of human history?
There are many ways this could be answered: apologetically, sociologically, historically, theologically, and methodologically.
We could answer this through the lens of eternity and tie it with the future hope of glory. But I am not going to do that today because sometimes when we start thinking of eternity, the inevitable result is we mentally begin to pack our bags, getting ready to get out of here. We want to check out of the hotel and leave the mess to the maids.
Instead of through the lens of eternity, we are going to look through the lens of the dirt, dust, sweat, sore feet, and messiness of the earth. How did Jesus save the world? How did he become the most influential person? Those are two different questions, but for the sake of this post, I am treating them as two ways to ask the same thing and specifically am considering what Jesus did in those three years of ministry before the cross.
If you do a quick read-through of the Gospel accounts (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), the stories about Jesus' ministry can be separated into two categories: crowd ministry and individual ministry.
Crowds
Very often in the Bible, Jesus drew crowds of many sizes. He taught thousands at a time, he fed multitudes, and he was an itinerant preacher traveling to various synagogues preaching. Jesus' crowd ministry was an important part of his mission. However, we won't spend our time focused on this because engaging with crowds is easy, and this is the method that most Christians or churches tend to gravitate to. Hold an event, get the rears in those chairs (that rhymes if you say it right 😉), and talk to or interact with as many people at once as possible. This is an efficient and effective ministry. We SHOULD DO IT. But that's just not what I am going to talk about today.
Individual Ministry
Alongside Jesus' crowd ministry, a pattern we see often is Jesus disregarding the crowd and focusing on one person. In fact, he told a parable about that once (Luke 15:1-7). Very often, Jesus went about his ministry in the least efficient, most inconvenient way possible: one person at a time. In fact, in the four Gospel accounts, there are more than 40 interactions between Jesus and individuals. Sometimes these individuals approached Jesus, sometimes Jesus approached them, and sometimes someone else brought Jesus to the individual or the individual to Jesus. In several of these interactions, it seems, Jesus sought out a specific individual. A few examples include:
- Zacchaeus (Luke 19:5)
- Samaritan woman (John 4)
- Man at the pool (John 5)
- Matthew (Luke 5:27)
Jesus very often would disregard the crowd and focus on one individual—making that one person, in that one moment, the priority—showing us that in this big cosmic, eternal plan of God to renew and restore all things, to restore all of the universe and make all things right — individuals mattered.
In the church, we will often, and rightly, say things like:
- Jesus loves drug addicts
- Jesus loves the outcasts
- Jesus loves the prostitutes
- Jesus loves the tax collectors
All true things, but there is a difference between saying Jesus loves tax collectors and saying Jesus loves Zacchaeus. Jesus loves individuals more than he loves categories. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). That was often accomplished when the general category of “the lost” became an individual connection, commitment, and interaction. Unfortunately, we are often okay with the idea of Jesus and categories and ministering to categories, while individuals are seen as distractions or nuisances. But for Jesus, Zacchaeus wasn’t a distraction from more important things. He wasn’t a drain on the mission. He was the important thing.
And again, there are 40+ stories in the Bible of Jesus interacting with individuals, Jesus fulfilling his mission one person at a time. If all of these 40+ individuals in the Gospels mattered to Jesus, then doesn’t it follow that you—individually—YOU matter to him and that your neighbor—individually—your coworker—individually—matters to him? That your needs—their needs, spiritual, physical, emotional—that your and their salvation—also matter to him—individually.
Engaging with a crowd is easy. Now I’m not saying public speaking is easy and one-on-one conversation is hard. That is not true for most people. I am saying addressing nameless, faceless people is easy:
- Sending out a mass mailer that has the church address
- Making a post on Facebook or clicking share
- Doing an event for nameless, faceless people in the community
These things, while taking work and effort, are easy. And to clarify, these things SHOULD BE DONE. These are ways we can engage with the crowd like Jesus often did. However, just as Jesus’ love was most clearly seen in his interactions with individuals, his love is still most clearly seen when we invest in and engage with individuals.
Individuals are more difficult. We avoid this sort of ministry sometimes because it is a little messier, and a little more difficult. Because when we engage with individuals, we put our image and reputation on the line. Just like when Jesus interacted with individuals, the question was: “Why are you associating with that type of person!?” When we build relationships with individuals, it can become inconvenient. We are emotionally invested and we risk pain and heartache. We have to wade through awkward conversations. People might say, do, or ask things that we are not prepared for. But it is worth it. It is how Jesus saved and loved the world. And for the world to know this love, categories need to become individuals.
Comentários