10-22-06-Love the Missing
Last week I shared about the One More Soul initiative of the Free Methodist Church that has been going on for a few years. Our theme for the initiative this year is found in Luke 15:2 “this man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Let’s look at the context of this verse:
¨ Luke 15:1-2 (NIV) Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Tax collectors were Jews that collected the taxes for the Roman government and often profited as a result. Some were accused of charging more tax than the Romans required and pocketing the difference. So these men would have been “rich” but highly despised not only by the religious leaders but by everyone—sort of like working for the IRS today.
The word for “sinners” means “irreligious or non-practicing Jews.” So the Pharisees were criticizing Jesus for welcoming those who they saw as not meeting their standard of religiosity. It was not that they cared about the soul or eternal destiny of these “sinners” but rather that they did not conform to their standards of what they felt was necessary to be religious. They certainly did not care about the soul or destiny of the tax collectors since they were seen as traitors who were helping the Romans. God help us that we never get a “holier than thou” attitude like the Pharisees and religious leaders!
This passage begins a set of 3 parables that Jesus teaches which are commonly known as the parable of the Lost Sheep, Lost Coin, and the Prodigal son. Now last week we saw how that instead of referring to those around us who do not know Jesus as the “lost,” we are calling them the “missing.” This comes from the book I was given by the bishops last month called a.k.a “Lost” by Jim Henderson.
But doesn’t this contradict what Jesus said when He called them the lost (v. 4, 6, 8, 9, 24, 32)? I think this seeming contradiction comes from a misunderstanding of what Jesus was trying to say and why He was saying it. Let’s remember who the audience is that Jesus is telling these parables to—the Pharisees and religious leaders who are looking down on those whom Jesus is associating with. That means that what He was saying was being said in terms that they would understand, since the parables were obviously meant for them to hear. In fact there were many parables that Jesus told the Pharisees and religious leaders to help them to see their pious attitude and how far they had completely missed a relationship with God—although they were practicing their religion faithfully and to the letter of the law.
When we look up the word for lost, we see that it literally means to destroy or perish. We have to remember that our understanding of a word today may be different from the meaning of the word in Jesus’ time. W.E. Vine’s Expository Dictionary of N T Words says “The idea is not extinction but ruin, loss, not of being, but of wellbeing.” So the word for lost here is more like saying the person has come to a ruin, or loss of their peace, it means that they are separated not destroyed.
LOSE, (suffer) LOSS, LOST
1. apollumi (ἀπόλλυμι, 622) signifies (I) In the active voice, (a) “to destroy, destroy utterly, kill,” e.g., Matt. 10:28; Mark 1:24; 9:22; (b) “to lose utterly,” e.g., Matt. 10:42, of “losing” a reward; Luke 15:4 (1st part), of “losing” a sheep; Luke 9:25, of “losing” oneself (of the “loss” of well-being hereafter); metaphorically, John 6:39, of failing to save; 18:9, of Christ’s not “losing” His own; (II), in the middle voice (a) “to perish,” of things, e.g., John 6:12 “(that nothing) be lost”; of persons, e.g., Matt. 8:25, “we perish;” of the “loss” of eternal life, usually (always in the rv) translated to perish, John 3:16; 17:12, kjv, “is lost,” rv, “perished”; 2 Cor. 4:3, “are perishing,” kjv, “are lost” (see perish); (b) “to be lost,” e.g., Luke 15:4 (2nd part), “which is lost”; metaphorically, from the relation between shepherd and flock, of spiritual destitution and alienation from God, Matt. 10:6, “(the) lost (sheep)” of the house of Israel; Luke 19:10 (the perfect tense translated “lost” is here intransitive). See destroy.[1]
DESTROY, DESTROYER, DESTRUCTION, DESTRUCTIVE
A. Verbs.
1. apollumi (ἀπόλλυμι, 622), a strengthened form of ollumi, signifies “to destroy utterly”; in middle voice, “to perish.” The idea is not extinction but ruin, loss, not of being, but of wellbeing. This is clear from its use, as, e.g., of the marring of wine skins, Luke 5:37; of lost sheep, i.e., lost to the shepherd, metaphorical of spiritual destitution, Luke 15:4, 6, etc.; the lost son, 15:24; of the perishing of food, John 6:27; of gold, 1 Pet. 1:7. So of persons, Matt. 2:13, “destroy”; 8:25, “perish”; 22:7; 27:20; of the loss of well-being in the case of the unsaved hereafter, Matt. 10:28; Luke 13:3, 5; John 3:16 (v. 15 in some mss.); 10:28; 17:12; Rom. 2:12; 1 Cor. 15:18; 2 Cor. 2:15, “are perishing”; 4:3; 2 Thess. 2:10; Jas. 4:12; 2 Pet. 3:9. Cf. B, II, No. 1. See die, lose, marred, perish. [2]
Taking that idea in context, the 3 parables are not talking about a sheep being killed or destroyed, a coin being destroyed, or the Prodigal Son being killed—each of who is referred to as “lost.” Instead each of the parables tells of something that was missed. The sheep was missed by the shepherd, so he had to go find it. The coin was missed by the woman, so she has to search the house to find it, and the Prodigal Son was missed by his father who rejoices when he is found.
Another important part of understanding why we do not want to call those who Jesus loves the “lost” is that it sets up an us vs. them mentality—much like the Pharisees and religious leaders had. Not necessarily that we turn our nose up at them because they don’t come to church or know Jesus, but rather an inner attitude of the heart. It creates an artificial separation between us and them, so that they are “outside the club.” Now you may not like that term of referring to the church as “club”—nor do I—yet, sometimes that is exactly how we act as Christians to those who are missing. Whenever they finally get their act together and say “the prayer” to accept Jesus, then they are accepted into the fold—not much different than having to pay dues to join a club. What this does is perpetuates their “lostness” and conveys a class system of superiority of “the found (us)” over “the lost (them).” Do you remember when you were in school and wanted to be a part of a group, but you just didn’t fit in? That is how we make the missing feel by treating them as outcasts or by even thinking in our minds of them as not a part of the club. The missing people who Jesus loves are no longer people with names like Bill, Sally, Tom, and Susan but instead a nebulous group called the “lost”—almost like they are not fellow human beings, but aliens from another planet.
When we change the name of people, or what we call them, we change how we feel toward them and the facts are that how we feel will determine how we act. Whether we like to admit it, a name does control the way we think about people. For example, if I say the word “homeless,” what image is conjured up in your mind? A poor, slovenly, dirty, lazy man who just needs to get a job. However, if I say that a person from Mississippi or New Orleans is homeless as a result of hurricane Katrina, we would see a totally different picture. Now we have a picture of an unfortunate person who has lost everything he had due to no fault of his own and just needs someone to help him get back on his feet. What changed? Aren’t they both homeless? Sure they are, but for one we feel compassion and for the other we feel pity and blame. It is all a matter of our perception of them
In the conversations Jesus had with the Pharisees and religious leaders, we don’t see Him referring to the missing as inferior or not belonging. In fact often Jesus accepted people as belonging before they actually became a part of the kingdom. Do you remember the story about Zacchaeus?
¨ Luke 19:1-10 (NIV) Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see Him, since Jesus was coming that way. 5 When Jesus reached the spot, He looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed Him gladly. 7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a ‘sinner.’” 8 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.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”
Zacchaeus was a tax collector—not only a tax collector, but a wealthy man and the chief tax-collector—can you imagine how he must have been rejected by the people, let alone the Pharisees and religious leaders. Surely his wealth was a result of unfair dealings as a tax collector, because when he met Jesus, he was convicted and wanted to make amends. But look at how Jesus treated Zacchaeus. He did not tell him to get saved before He could talk to him. In fact, He told him “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” Jesus did not care that Zacchaeus was an outcast or “sinner” He wanted to go to his house and spend time with him. As a result of that love and acceptance Zacchaeus becomes converted. Jesus saw Zacchaeus as spiritually destitute and said that he was restored to being a son of Abraham (a Jew) as a result of his decision to follow the right way of the law to help the poor. If we read that last phrase in vs. 10 correctly, it reads “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was “in spiritual ruin and separated from God” (lost).”
Another example is when Jesus called Matthew (a “sinner” tax collector by the way) to be His disciple.
¨ Matthew 9:9-13 (NIV) As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow Me,” He told him, and Matthew got up and followed Him. 10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” 12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ a For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Notice the pattern: Jesus saw Matthew at his tax collector’s booth doing his job. Jesus called Matthew to follow Him. Matthew got up and followed Jesus. They went to Matthew’s house to have dinner—i.e. Jesus followed Matthew home.
“Here is what Jesus didn’t do (WJDD):
§ He didn’t tell Matthew to join the Jesus commune.
§ He didn’t have Matthew pray the prayer “just to be sure.”
§ He didn’t discourage Matthew from spending time with his old friends (most who would probably have been outcasts) by sharing the verse about bad company corrupting good character.
§ He didn’t challenge Matthew to give his personal testimony at the dinner.
§ He didn’t even make Matthew pay back all the people he had ripped off, as Zacchaeus did in Luke 19.”[3]
“Brian McLaren believes that both the missing and the church have lost their way. Those who are missing are unsure how to locate God, and the church seems unsure about how to find the missing. We have majored in the minors and failed to become expert in our primary task—connecting with the people Jesus misses most. We’re both lost.”[4]
As we change our hearts and attitudes toward the missing and stop seeing them as “lost” and us as “found” we will begin to connect with the people that Jesus loves. By planting seeds of love in the life of those who are missing God can use those seeds to bring them home to Himself. I believe as we show the missing real love, that like the Prodigal Son, they will “come to their senses” and return to God. Maybe, we will blessed to be there when it happens, or maybe like the older son we will be busy doing God’s work. However, the key is that God knows when they come home and all of heaven rejoices. Let’s continue to pray that God will open our eyes to those around us who are missing, then go out this week seeking them and being true witnesses for God of His love and grace to those whom Jesus loves.
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[1]Vine, W. E., Unger, M. F., & White, W. (1996). Vine's complete expository dictionary of Old and New Testament words (2:380). Nashville: T. Nelson.
[2]Vine, W. E., Unger, M. F., & White, W. (1996). Vine's complete expository dictionary of Old and New Testament words (2:164). Nashville: T. Nelson.
a Hosea 6:6
[3] a.k.a. Lost, Jim Henderson, WaterBrook Press, Colorado Springs, Colorado, p. 41-42.
[4]Ibid, p. 119.