Jesus seeks the lost

 JESUS SEEKS THE LOST

“The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

LUKE 19.10

Jesus heard that [the Jewish leaders] had thrown him out [of the synagogue], and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

JOHN 9.35

Based on JOHN 9.1–34

Throughout the Gospels, we read of Jesus performing miraculous signs that testified to His identity as the One sent from God to rescue His people. And while these miraculous signs served as public testimony to His identity, we also witness Jesus’ intense, personal love for each person He touched.

We read in John 9 how Jesus healed a man who was blind since birth. For those of us raised in church, it’s easy to gloss over the details, blobbing together all the stories of blind people seeing into one massive text. But this narrative is singular in that it’s the only time Jesus heals a person who had been born blind, and this detail is critically important.

Other prophets and men of God had opened the eyes of the blind. But no one had ever given sight to someone born blind, as the man himself testifies before the Jewish leaders. In fact, giving sight to those born blind was one of the characteristics unique to the long-awaited Messiah. Jesus’ claim to be the light of the world right before performing this miraculous healing clearly points to His ownership of the Messiah title, as the man who receives sight clearly understands. But his courage to stand against the Jewish leaders and publicly proclaim Jesus as the Messiah earns him expulsion from the community and banishment from the synagogue.

This man who had once been isolated from his community by his physical infirmity is now isolated by his social ostracism. But Jesus, hearing that he had been thrown out, seeks him and finds him.

What would compel Jesus to take time out of His busy schedule of teaching and healing the masses to seek out a single man?

His heart of love, of course.

Jesus lives out the parable of the lost sheep, leaving the crowd behind to go after this man who must have felt lost and alone in his newfound world. The Good Shepherd, upon finding His sheep, “joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home” (see Luke 15:3–7). So Jesus, finding this man invites him to place his destiny into His care, and believing in Jesus, the man falls to His feet in worship. He had been blind, and now he saw. He had been lost, and now he was found. He had been thrown out of his community, but now he was finally brought home.

Prayer 

Good Shepherd, You sought me while I was lost, and You brought me home to Yourself. I want to learn to love like You love. Guard me from self-righteousness and spiritual blindness like the Pharisees. Give me eyes to see the lost and to go after them. 

In Jesus’s name, Amen.

If you want to read more 

Psa 146.8, Isa 35.4–6, 42.6–7, 61.1–3, Lk 4.14–21, 7.18–24, Jn 9.35–10.21