Luke #42: The King's Mission (18:35-19:10)

Again, welcome to Family Worship with the church body of Eastern Hills this morning! I’m Bill Connors, senior pastor, and I’m thrilled that we’ve been able to start the service with baptism, and we’ve enjoyed some great old hymns. Thanks, praise band, for leading us in those wonderful tunes.

If you’re visiting with us this morning, thanks for being here today. We’d really like to be able to connect with you to thank you for joining us for worship. If you could take a second during my message and fill out a communication card, which you’ll find in the back of the pew in front of you, we would really appreciate it. You can return that to us one of two ways: First, you can bring it down to me at the end of the service, because I’d like to meet you and give you a small gift as a token of our gratitude for your visit today. If you don’t have time for that this morning, you can drop the Welcome card in the boxes by the doors as you leave after the service ends. If you’d rather fill out something online, you can head to ehbc.org or download our church app (EHBC Albuquerque) and fill out the contact form at the bottom of the “I’m New” link.

Thanks to Tok Nyo for the coffee bar.… not church sponsored.

Announcements

Trunk of Treat was such a great time on Friday! Thanks to all who participated.

Opening

We are rapidly approaching the end of Luke’s “travel narrative” section, where Jesus has had His eyes on Jerusalem, His crucifixion, and His resurrection as He has ministered and taught. Two weeks ago, we considered Kingdom Signs, and last week, Kingdom Perspectives. The Gospel is the Story of the King, and King Jesus has a mission. In our focal passage today, He will make perhaps the most clear declaration of exactly what His mission is.

So if you will please, as you are able, stand in honor of the reading of God’s holy Word as we open our Bibles or Bible apps to the end of the 18th chapter of Luke. I will begin reading in verse 35:

Luke 18:35–19:10 CSB

35 As he approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the road begging. 36 Hearing a crowd passing by, he inquired what was happening. 37 “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by,” they told him. 38 So he called out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 39 Then those in front told him to keep quiet, but he kept crying out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 40 Jesus stopped and commanded that he be brought to him. When he came closer, he asked him, 41 “What do you want me to do for you?” “Lord,” he said, “I want to see.” 42 “Receive your sight,” Jesus told him. “Your faith has saved you.” 43 Instantly he could see, and he began to follow him, glorifying God. All the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God. 1 He entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 There was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. 3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but he was not able because of the crowd, since he was a short man. 4 So running ahead, he climbed up a sycamore tree to see Jesus, since he was about to pass that way. 5 When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down because today it is necessary for me to stay at your house.” 6 So he quickly came down and welcomed him joyfully. 7 All who saw it began to complain, “He’s gone to stay with a sinful man.” 8 But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, I’ll give half of my possessions to the poor, Lord. And if I have extorted anything from anyone, I’ll pay back four times as much.” 9 “Today salvation has come to this house,” Jesus told him, “because he too is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”

PRAYER (Those who we were able to make contact with and share the love of Christ with through Trunk or Treat)

Probably almost 30 years ago, before I was on staff even, Eastern Hills was involved in a massive search for a missing hiker. One of our church members at the time, Cody, went for a hike while he was camping down in the wilderness of the Lincoln National Forest down near Ruidoso. He got disoriented, and lost track of how to get back to his campsite. After he was missing overnight, a search was started. Several of us went down to search for him, and people came from all over the state to help. We had a mission: to find Cody, because he was lost and needed rescued.

I hiked around the national forest for a couple of days looking for Cody, all the time hoping that we’d find him alive. Every little hill you crested, every scrub bush you looked under, you expected to see him. Every time you yelled his name, which we did over and over again, you expected an answer. After the third night of his missing, folks were pretty concerned. I had to come home. I believe that it was two days later—after Cody had been missing for nearly six full days—some hikers came upon him. They saw him sitting on a log on the edge of a trail. They went to him and asked if he was okay… he was dehydrated and sunburned, but was otherwise unhurt. He wouldn’t have lasted much longer without their rescue.

Back here at the church building, we celebrated the news, and even gave Cody an round of joyful applause the next time he was in church service.

This morning, our focal passage shows us that we are (spiritually speaking) like Cody, in a way. Apart from Jesus, we are lost and without hope, wandering in a wilderness of darkness. But what King Jesus shows about Himself in this passage is that He has a mission: He sees us and our needs, He seeks us out, and He saves us through faith.

1: Jesus sees.

I know, I know… it seems a little strange that I would take the story of the blind man and from it say that it’s Jesus who sees. But stay with me. It appears that Mark gives us a name for this blind man—Bartimaeus—in chapter 10 of his Gospel. Their interaction is the last miraculous event of the travel narrative:

Luke 18:35–43 CSB

Bartimaeus was desperately needy. He had a very real, very debilitating physical need, but he knew that Jesus could heal him. So when he heard that it was Jesus coming by, he started to call to Him. And when people told him to knock it off, he just kept going, calling to Jesus, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

For Luke, this is a special designation for Jesus. He has only used this phrase in his Gospel in the genealogy in chapter 3, and he’ll only use it one more time after this, and he doesn’t use it at all in Acts. Its use by the blind man is intentional. He’s declaring, without a doubt, that he believes that Jesus is the promised Messiah, the descendant of David who would come to reign as King. In 2 Samuel 7, the Lord made a promise to David:

2 Samuel 7:12–14 CSB

12 When your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up after you your descendant, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14a I will be his father, and he will be my son.

2 Samuel 7:16 CSB

16 Your house and kingdom will endure before me forever, and your throne will be established forever.’ ”

God declared to David that one of his descendants would sit on his throne as King, and that His reign would be established forever. Jesus was in His human lineage a descendant of David as we saw back in the genealogy when we looked at it earlier this year.

The only other place that Luke uses this designation is in chapter 20, where He quotes Psalm 110 (which we read earlier this week in our Bible reading plan):

Luke 20:41–44 CSB

41 Then he said to them, “How can they say that the Messiah is the son of David? 42 For David himself says in the Book of Psalms: The Lord declared to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand 43 until I make your enemies your footstool.’ 44 David calls him ‘Lord.’ How, then, can the Messiah be his son?”

Almost ironically, this imagery was not lost on the blind man, and there was no way that he was going to stop this call to Jesus. In this way, he’s actually like the persistent widow in the parable that we looked at last week—the cry of this blind man for mercy was truly a prayer, because it was addressed to God incarnate.

And the King looked Bartimaeus’s way, and called him over. He saw Bartimaeus—not just the physical part with its disability—but He truly saw the deepest need of Bartimaeus’s heart. And so He asks this blind beggar a question that was meant to elicit faith—a question that almost feels like a blank check:

“What do you want Me to do for you?” (v 41)

Just as He did Bartimaeus, Jesus sees us clearly as well...in fact, He sees us more clearly than we even see ourselves. He sees our struggles and pains, our fears and joys, our secrets and our sins...even the ones we refuse to admit to ourselves. And I wonder how often Jesus asks this question of us: “What do you want Me to do for you?”

Jesus sees our deepest need, and He has provided Himself as the means of meeting that need. The question we must consider today is: do WE see our need? The greatest need that we have as humans isn’t physical or financial or emotional. It’s spiritual. We need to be set free from our sin, moved out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of this marvelous King. Jesus died so that we could be saved by faith:

Romans 8:32 CSB

32 He did not even spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything?

So Jesus has the power and resources to meet our deepest needs, as He did for this blind man.

“Receive your sight” is actually a single word imperative for “see.” A single word of command, and this man’s blindness vanishes instantaneously, as Jesus tells Him, “Your faith has saved you.” The first face Bartimaeus saw was the face of Jesus.

Bartimaeus was so blind, he couldn’t see anything. But he believed that Jesus could give him sight, so he cried out over and over again to the King for mercy. Jesus saw him, and then he could see… but not just see physically. He could see spiritually, because through his faith, he follows Jesus.

In this moment, in the seeing and interacting with Bartimaeus, Jesus is continuing to fulfill what He said He had come to do back in chapter 4, when He read from Isaiah.

Luke 4:18–19 CSB

18 The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

The the people watching see this as well, and they give praise to God because of what Jesus has done.

He is a King on a mission: He is on His way to the place where He will lay down His life for humanity to rescue us from our sins. But along the way, He sees the needs of those around Him. We also are to keep our eyes open in order to see those around us: to see the needs, and as the Lord provides resource and vision, we are to strive to meet those needs, keeping in mind that the greatest need that anyone has the need for Jesus Himself. We can tell them about Christ, and call them to faith.

But more than simply seeing who appeared in front of Him, Jesus actually sought to interact with those who needed Him, and He still seeks today.

2: Jesus seeks.

The record of Zacchaeus’s interaction with Jesus is only recorded in Luke’s Gospel, and we know nothing about him after that. But like the search parties that went looking for Cody, Jesus went out of His way to find those who were lost and in need of His compassion, correction, and mercy. Zacchaeus was one such man.

Luke 19:1–9 CSB

1 He entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 There was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. 3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but he was not able because of the crowd, since he was a short man. 4 So running ahead, he climbed up a sycamore tree to see Jesus, since he was about to pass that way. 5 When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down because today it is necessary for me to stay at your house.” 6 So he quickly came down and welcomed him joyfully. 7 All who saw it began to complain, “He’s gone to stay with a sinful man.” 8 But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, I’ll give half of my possessions to the poor, Lord. And if I have extorted anything from anyone, I’ll pay back four times as much.” 9 “Today salvation has come to this house,” Jesus told him, “because he too is a son of Abraham.

Jericho was the last major city that Jesus would visit before coming to Jerusalem. Jericho is about 17 miles northeast of Jerusalem. Situated about six miles west of the Jordan, and north of the Dead Sea, it would be the logical place to turn to on your way to Jerusalem if you were coming down the Jordan from Galilee, which was the common route people took for that trip. Jesus met the blind man as He was approaching Jericho, and the people of Jericho were excited at His arrival.

Jericho was a major tax center in the region, and we see that Hebrew Zacchaeus was a “chief” tax collector there, being responsible for the management of the other tax collectors and receiving a portion of the taxes that they collected. He was a man of considerable means and power. One did not get to this position through hard work and diligence, integrity and character, or particular business acumen. This position was an appointment by the Romans, and it very likely means that Zacchaeus’s name is sadly ironic. His name means “righteous” or “innocent,” but he had certainly been anything but if he had been installed by the Romans to this important position. Thus, he is a pariah in his own city, among his own people, because they see him as a traitor—the worst of sinners.

And unfortunately for Zacchaeus, he was also really short. So as the crowd gathers around Jesus, Zacchaeus can’t see Him, even though he wants to. You can imagine the scene, can’t you? The crowds lining the streets or gathering in a massive ring around Jesus, and as this hated chief of the tax collectors tries to squeeze between folks so he can get to the front and see Jesus, the people look with disdain, press closer together, perhaps throw an elbow or two, and otherwise ignore him. All his wealth and power doesn’t matter in this moment. You could say that Zacchaeus and Bartimaeus are in kind of the same situation, but with different reasons for not being able to see Jesus clearly. Like the crowd who told Bartimaeus to be quiet verbally, this crowd becomes an obstacle physically.

So what is this wee little man to do in order to see Jesus? He climbs a tree (which was a socially unacceptable practice for any Jewish man… children climbed trees… men did not). Sycamore-fig trees are large trees with stout, low-hanging branches that even a short person might be able to jump up and grab.

There is a tree in Jerusalem that is called “Zacchaeus’s tree.” It’s on the side of the main thoroughfare through old Jericho. I did not get to see it myself when I was in Israel (we didn’t go to Jericho), but our friend Yoav kindly sent me a picture of it to share with you.

Picture of Zacchaeus’s Tree

Now, whether or not this is THE tree is immaterial. It could be, I suppose. But you can see that if you could make it into the tree, the branches are really thick for a long way from the trunk. This tree’s branches could support a man of slight stature out over a crowd for quite a distance… perhaps 20 feet or more.

But even as Zacchaeus seeks Jesus by running and climbing the tree, Jesus is seeking him. I’m sure Zacchaeus thought that Jesus was just going to walk on by, but instead, He stops and steps into Zacchaeus’s life, declaring that it is “necessary” that He stay at Zacchaeus’s house. This Greek word for “necessary” often is used to refer to the plan of God. Jesus isn’t staying with Zacchaeus for Jesus’s sake. He’s staying with him for Zacchaeus’s sake. Zacchaeus scrambles down the tree and takes him home.

The people were indignant, and complained that Jesus was making a poor choice of company here. Grant Osborne writes:

To have table fellowship (share a meal) with a person in the ancient world meant to accept them and share their life. So Jesus by staying with him partook of his bad reputation in the town.

—Grant R. Osborne, Luke: Verse by Verse

As a part of His kingly mission, Jesus sought out Zacchaeus and took his shame on Himself. And likewise, Jesus seeks us in order to take our shame and deliver us from it as we welcome Him in repentance and faith. Only He can change our hearts, which is what happened with Zacchaeus.

This man who likely cheated many people in order to become rich suddenly gives half of his wealth away to the poor as a show of the change that Jesus has wrought in his heart. This shows that the request that Jesus made to the rich young ruler last week—that he sell all he had and give to the poor—was not prescriptive for everyone. Zacchaeus is a surprising contrast to that poor rich man.

Not only that, but he declares that if he had cheated anyone, he will repay them four times what he had cheated them out of. This is massively beyond the Jewish law:

Leviticus 6:4–5 CSB

4 once he has sinned and acknowledged his guilt—he must return what he stole or defrauded, or the deposit entrusted to him, or the lost item he found, 5 or anything else about which he swore falsely. He will make full restitution for it and add a fifth of its value to it. He is to pay it to its owner on the day he acknowledges his guilt.

The Law said that he was to pay back the amount plus 20%. Zacchaeus pays back the amount plus 400%! This act shows not only his confession of having cheated others, but his repentance in having done so. His new life in Christ is already causing him to follow the advice of John the Baptist from way back in chapter 3:

Luke 3:8 CSB

8 Therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance. And don’t start saying to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones.

And Zacchaeus is a child of Abraham, even though everyone had treated him like he wasn’t due to his sin. Likely Zacchaeus’s pronouncement of response didn’t take place under the tree, but it could have. Jesus refers to salvation coming to Zacchaeus’s “house,” so likely it was at the meal Zacchaeus provided for Jesus and the disciples.

I want to make one thing clear: Jesus doesn’t say that Zacchaeus was saved because he gave away a massive portion of his wealth. He didn’t earn his salvation. Instead, salvation came to Zacchaeus’s house, and it was shown to be genuine because of Zacchaeus’s response. Just like Bartimaeus, his faith had saved him, again reflecting Abraham’s life:

Genesis 15:6 CSB

6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

We cannot earn salvation through our works. Yes, we are to be generous to those in need, but being generous alone doesn’t save. Yes, we are to repent of our sin and make restitution, but doing that apart from faith doesn’t save either. We are saved when respond to God’s grace in belief: trusting that Christ is Savior—that He died in our place for our sins so we can be forgiven—and that He is Lord—that He is sovereign over our lives and we will surrender to His will and way.

Even though the restoring of the blind man’s sight was the last physical miracle of the travel narrative, here we are witnessing a profound spiritual miracle in light of what we saw last week. In Luke 18:24-25, Jesus said this:

Luke 18:24–25 CSB

24 Seeing that he became sad, Jesus said, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! 25 For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

In Zacchaeus, we see the incredible grace of God as we see the proverbial camel go through the eye of the proverbial needle. This rich man entered the Kingdom of God through faith, because:

Luke 18:27 CSB

27 He replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”

And Jesus is still seeking, still calling people to faith, because it is through faith that we are brought into a restored relationship with God. Only Jesus saves:

3: Jesus saves.

These two men are case studies on salvation, in a way. Jesus knew He would meet both of them as He traveled to and through Jericho. Both had needs that only Jesus could meet. Neither understood their real need. Jesus met their needs because Jesus saves. And in verse 10, He makes a clear declaration of His mission:

Luke 19:10 CSB

10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”

This is as clear as it gets. Jesus didn’t come to start a political movement, a social club, or a non-profit organization. He came to seek and to save the lost, fulfilling the prophetic message of Ezekiel 34:16:

Ezekiel 34:16 CSB

16 I will seek the lost, bring back the strays, bandage the injured, and strengthen the weak, but I will destroy the fat and the strong. I will shepherd them with justice.

And He didn’t come to save all the good people, the kind people, and the holy people. He came to call sinners to repentance:

Luke 5:32 CSB

32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

He came to save rebels so that they would be good, to save evil people so that they would be kind, to save sinful people so that they would be holy. His mission isn’t over, and it won’t be over until He comes again.

Only Jesus saves, and today I call you who have never believed the Gospel to hear the call of the Spirit of God to trust in Christ and be saved!

Acts 4:12 CSB

12 There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.”

Closing

And now, Jesus’s mission becomes our mission, because God has appointed us as His ambassadors in this world. How are we fulfilling that mission in our own lives? Granted, we can’t save anyone. But we can see them. We can seek them. And we can tell them.

Church, this is our calling. These are our marching orders, as they were for the Peter in Acts 10:

Acts 10:42–43 CSB

42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be the judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that through his name everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins.”

In the Informer, I wrote about the resolution that the Baptist Convention of New Mexico adopted last week on Evangelism and Missions. Are we resolved to participate in our King’s mission to the lost?

Submission

You might be like Cody was: lost and wandering and without hope. But Jesus sees you. He seeks you. He wants to save you. If you are without Christ, your situation is much more serious than Cody’s lostness or Bartimaeus’s blindness. Jesus died so you could live. He calls you to trust in Him, surrendering your life, believing the Gospel so you can be with Him eternally.

Baptism

Church membership

Prayer

Giving

PRAYER

Closing Remarks

Bible reading (1 Tim 6:3-21, Ps 113)

Pastor’s Study tonight

Prayer Meeting Wednesday—Special guest Larry Dubin, a Messianic Jew who will be helping us in deepen our perspective on praying through the names of God.

Instructions for guests

Benediction

1 Timothy 4:10 CSB

10 For this reason we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.

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