Jesus cares for the lost.

Last week, we talk about the need of catching or contracting the craziness of the preaching of the gospel.

If we pretend to be disciples of Christ, we must follow His example:

“... the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” ().

Saving the lost was the ultimate reason for His coming to this world, and of His sacrifice at the cross. He cared for the lost! Do you care for them?

Because Jesus cares for the lost...

He reached them regardless of social status.

One of the ecclesiastical diseases that is affecting the church of our days is what is called Social Blindness: the believers are not interested in reaching people of a different social status.

Jesus did not care about they had or did, or to what class they belonged. He was interested in their soul and where they were heading to.

In these verses, we find our Lord Jesus two men from the opposite ends of the social or economic spectrum. The first one from the low end:

He saved a poor paralytic.

Jesus always had the poor in his heart! He loved them!

The prophet Isaiah had announced the Lord’s interest for their salvation:

Luke 4:18 NASB95

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed,

Luk 4:18

Paralytics were very often poor because they couldn’t work. They lived depending on alms and, sometimes, from the help of relatives and friends.

A real friend cannot be blind to the need of his friend. The poor man was rich in friends. He was brought to Jesus by those friends (“they”). They wanted to see him whole. They were willing to spend time and energy, to do whatever it took to bring their friend to Jesus. They knew that Jesus would save him.

Do you do the same for your friends? Why not?

Note that Jesus did not heal his physical paralysis right away; He healed his spiritual paralysis first: “your sins are forgiven.” Salvation is more important than anything else.

Jesus cared for the poor, but also for the rich. They also have a soul that needs salvation.

He saved a wealthy tax collector.

Those who suffer Social Blindness expect others to be like them, to speak like them, to dress like them, and to worship like them.

That was part of the problem with the Pharisees. They wanted others to become like them.

Tax collectors (publicans) were hated by most Jews. Why? Because they were Jews working for Rome in the collections of taxes.

It was a job that allow them to become wealthy. One of them, Zaccheus, was so wealthy that, when Jesus saved him, gave back four times to those he had defrauded.

Jesus did not care about they had or did, or to what class they belonged. He was interested in their soul and where they were heading to.

Who says that the wealthy do not need Jesus? Money did not make Matthew happy! He was empty! Money does not give real happiness!

The publican left his well paid job to follow Jesus; and he became one of the twelve apostles and one of the four evangelists.

Jesus wants to save the poor, but also the wealthy! He cares for them!

He reached them regardless of ethnic status.

The church is sometimes infected with Ethniquitis, an ecclesiastical disease that does not allow Christians to accept people from a different ethnic group.

From the very beginning of the training of the apostles, He told them: “Go first to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” ()

Later, He added:

John 10:16 NASB95

“I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.

To Jesus there is only one race: the human race. He instructed His disciples “to make disciples of all nations (ethnic groups); and He gave them example: He saved the Samaritan woman, and the Syro Phoenician woman.

Peter, who learned from the Master, shared the news with Cornelius, the Roman centurion, and his family.

Paul confirmed it when he wrote:

Romans 1:16 NASB95

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Jesus’ arms were open to all.

“many tax collectors and sinner came and were dining with Jesus and His disciples.”

When people came to Jesus, no one felt rejected! On the contrary, everyone felt welcome.

He is a friend of sinners.

The Pharisees criticized because His friendliness to sinners. He was known as “friend of tax collectors and sinners”.

One problem that every church that wants to grow must overcome is called Koinonitis.

Koinonitis: “the established groups of friends do not want others to enter their circle of fellowship”.

Therefore, people do not feel welcomed and leave. The more friends a visitor makes in his first month of attendance, the higher the probability for him to stay in the church (minimum 8 friends in six months).

He is a friend of “righteous”.

The Pharisees consider themselves as “righteous”. “Phares” means “separated” and those men separated themselves from the other Jews. Therefore, they thought that, because they were following their religion, they were right with God.

That’s why they asked, when they saw the people who surrounded Jesus:

Matthew 9:11 NASB95

When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?”

Mat 9:11

The Pharisees, like many people nowadays, had religion, but their heart was empty; they were far from God.

The Pharisees, like many people nowadays, had religion, but their heart was empty.

They had religion, but their heart was empty, like it is the case of most religious people.

But Jesus did not reject them, He just told them the truth!

One of them, realizing his emptiness, came to Jesus. His name was Nicodemus. Jesus not only received him, but He gave Nicodemus all the answers he needed. The end of the gospels give proof that Nicodemus became a believer after his meeting with Jesus. Another was Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin; he even gave a new tomb for the body of his Savior.

Jesus cared for you and me! Jesus cares for the lost! Do you care for them? How do you show it? What do you do to reach them?