Luke 19:1-10 And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho.… I. LET ME BRING BEFORE YOU THE INTERESTING STATEMENT OF OUR TEXT. 1. The "lost," then, are the objects of His care and love. There are two ideas comprehended in the expression. When Christ would illustrate the condition of those who were lost, on one occasion, He selected three objects: a sheep — money — and a prodigal (Luke 15.). One of these could only be test in the sense of its owner being deprived of its use. Having no consciousness, the evil of its being mislaid fell upon the "woman." But the other two being lost, suffered or were exposed to evil of their own, as well as occasioned evil to those to whom they belonged or were related. The loss of the "sheep" included danger and trouble to itself, as well as anxiety and deprivation to its possessor; the loss of the "prodigal" entailed distrust and shame upon himself, as well as affliction on his "father's house." And these are the most fitting and forcible symbols of the sinner's case. Lost to God and lost to himself. 2. Man, thus lost, thus spiritually lost — lost to God, and to himself, is the object of Christ's care. He loves us in our weakness, and worldliness, in "our crimes and our carnality." He proposes our salvation: to bring us back to God, to bestow His knowledge, love, and image. Let it be remembered, however, that Christ's chief aim is to secure inward and individual salvation. Whatever may be done for a man is very little while he is lost, in reference to the highest things; you cannot save him, unless you convert him. 3. Christ "seeks" to "save." He goes in quest of men. He had His eye on Zaccheus when he visited the sycamore tree — His "delights were" at the work ere His charity had utterance there. He knew where the objects of His pity were to be found, and directed His course and shaped His plans that He might meet with them. 4. Once more. Christ not only proposes the good of the "lost," even their "salvation," and "seeks" them for this purpose, but "He is come" to do it. What He did on earth — His life and labours and sufferings and death; what He does in heaven, by the agency of men, the ministry of Providence, the operations of the Holy Spirit, are all to be considered in relation to His coming hither — the fact, the manner, and the meaning of His advent. II. CONSIDER SOME IMPORTANT BEARINGS OF THE STATEMENT NOW ILLUSTRATED. 1. You have in our subject an evidence of our religion — the religion of "the Son of man." Think of His object, principle, and method, and say whether, in the circumstances of the case, they do not necessarily indicate one come from God? There were no materials in that "half-barbarous nation in wholly barbarous times" out of which could have been formed the living "Son of man," and no materials out of which His image could have been formed. He must have been, or none could have conceived of Him; and if He were, He must have been from heaven. 2. You have in our subject a beautiful model of Christian life and labour. What Christ was, we should be. 3. You have in our subject matter for the serious consideration of unconverted men. Christ came to seek and to save men — came to seek and to save you. Are you conscious of your lost condition and bitterly bewailing it? It will be always true that salvation was possible, was presented, was pressed! And this increases your doom. (A. J. Morris.) Parallel Verses KJV: And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. |
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