Thursday Reflection January 28, 2021

Thursday Reflection

January 28, 2021

Salvation is for everyone

Then Jesus said to Zacchaeus, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham.” Luke 19:9

Good day friends!

Today’s reflection is very short and simple. Salvation is for everyone! Our text begins with the story of Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector and a wealthy man. Tax collectors had a bad reputation of taking people’s money in addition to the tax they collected and they were despised for that. Zacchaeus heard of Jesus passing through Jericho and because of his short stature he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree. Jesus saw him and told him to come down for he was staying at his house today. Of course some people began to grumble and say Jesus has gone to stay at the house of a sinner. Zacchaeus in the meantime pledged to give half his possession to the poor and repay four times the amount of anyone he defrauded. It is as this point that Jesus said, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham.

Friends, as I look at the behavior of some of the people I wonder how do we view those we tend to label as “sinners”? For these people Zacchaeus was a sinner and Jesus who is righteous should have no interaction with him. It makes me wonder if some of us, even as Christians, don’t have this same view? We look at some people and how they dress, carry themselves, listen to their speech and draw the conclusion that they are sinners and we should not interact with them. So we stay away from the prostitutes, the scammers, the weed distributors, the thieves, the gunman, the whore monger, and the drunkard, because we label them as wicked people. There are even some churches that do not minister to these people, because they do not fall into the category of people they want to be at their church. How wrong they are for having this view.

Here is how Jesus looks at the “sinners.” I keep putting “sinners” in inverted commas because before we met Jesus we all were “sinners” and some of us even after meeting Jesus are still the same “sinners” or even worse off than before we met Jesus. But back to the point I’m making. Jesus views “sinners” as “son of Abraham.” This is important, because all of the Jews came from Abraham. So in essence Jesus still saw the “sinner” as part of the special people He loves known as the Jews. Let’s translate it to today’s context. Jesus died for everyone that is the thief, gunman, scammer, prostitute, whore monger, the liar, and the murderer, because He loves them and still sees them as his children.

So if Jesus loves the thief, gunman, scammer, prostitute, whore monger, the liar, and the murderer and sees them as His children, then they are our brothers and sisters that we must show love to. Salvation is not exclusive it is available to everyone.

Shalom

Christopher Euphfa