Sought and Saved

Luke 19:1-10 and the Search for Zacchaeus

Luke 19, beginning in verse 1. He entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was.

But on account of the crowd, he could not, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead, inclined up into a sycamore tree to see him. For he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.

So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled. He has gone in to be a guest of the man who was a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor.

And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold. And Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

Amen.

You may be seated.

Zacchaeus, the Tax Collector, and the Rich Man in Luke 18

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for Jesus Christ who came to seek and save the lost. We ask that you would help us to understand this passage here in Luke, what its purpose is, why you have given it to us, the truths contained therein that we might have a fuller.

Life.

In Jesus' name, amen. So to recall some of the context here beforehand in Luke 18, Jesus had been approached by a rich young ruler, and he had explained that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.

And the various narratives that have come after that have continued to develop on this concern that it is impossible to enter the kingdom of heaven, that what is impossible with man is possible with God.

Now before, the truth of this matter has been declared that what is impossible with man is possible with God. Yet it is here at the end of this set of concerns about the salvation of the rich, before he gives the parable to round it out and then speaks of the triumphal entry, it is here that we see the final answer for how it is that it is possible with God.

The answer is that it is not man who seeks Jesus, but Jesus who seeks man. And that is the means by which salvation is possible, not impossible. Consider how this passage develops. First you have this man, Zacchaeus.

He is called a chief tax collector. He is presumably a Jewish man, which is interesting given that later on he is affirmed to be a son of Abraham, though he is treated as though he is not a son of Abraham beforehand.

I say he is presumably Jewish because his name is a Jewish name. Matthew 18, in describing church discipline, says to the one who is removed from the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

So even though this man has a Jewish name, that does not give him the status of a Jew if he is a tax collector, it gives him the status of a Gentile. He has aligned himself with the Romans. And typically tax collectors would take more than they were supposed to take, and their gain was wrongful.

This is what we see when the tax collectors go to John the Baptist and they ask, what must we do? And his answer is that they must not take more than what is appointed to them. And this is also what we see for Zacchaeus too, since he admits that he is defrauded and that he will restore anything fourfold.

Now we also see that he is someone who is trying to see Jesus, doesn't necessarily know who Jesus is, but he is running on ahead, trying to find him. He is being prevented by the crowd from being able to see, but he climbs up a tree in order that he can see him because he is a short man.

Jesus calls him out by name, surprising that Jesus knows his name, perhaps he is informed by the Spirit of God. The Bible says earlier that he knew it was in the hearts of man, so Jesus has this knowledge so that he can call out to Zacchaeus personally.

Zacchaeus receives him into his home joyfully while others grumble in response, saying why is it that Jesus accepts in these tax collectors is a frequent thing that you see throughout this book, is Pharisees, scribes, but even just the people at large grumbling that Jesus would associate with sinners and tax collectors.

And Zacchaeus follows Jesus, he becomes his disciple. He gives up his wealth, he gives up half of his wealth to the poor. We see that this is the kind of thing that Jesus would require of his disciples before the man that, the rich young ruler had come to Jesus and Jesus responded by telling them that he should sell all that he has and distribute it to the poor.

Now this man sells half of what he has, gives it to the poor, the command to sell everything is not for everyone, yet at the same time every single one of Christ's disciples are required to dedicate the whole of themselves and their possessions to the Lord in whatever capacity he sees fit.

So this man, becoming Christ's disciple, gives half of his possessions to the poor and moreover he says that he will restore whatever he has defrauded in one fourfold. What the law requires in Leviticus 6 is adding a fifth to what was stolen, so you have to give back 120 according to the law.

What does he say he's going to do? He's going to give back 400%, so he is very excited about this salvation. Now there are some who look at this and they say that Zacchaeus is declaring his innocence rather than engaging in repentance.

He is declaring that he is already a good man. I think it's pretty obvious that that is not the case. Jesus says that he came to seek and save the lost, it suggests that this is a lost man, this is an unsaved man.

His claim that, or his statement that he is willing to restore anything that he's defrauded suggests that he is, that this is an act of repentance. And then in all of this he is declared to be a son of Abraham, the son of man, came to seek and to save the lost.

And this is the statement that summarizes the takeaway that we're supposed to have from this whole passage. I wrestled with this passage perhaps longer than I should have, wondering what is the main point of this?

There's a lot of, there are a number of passages that are very similar in Luke, and yet Luke includes this one, and so I ask myself, what is the point of this passage? Why would Luke include this, given that there are so many other things?

We've seen a rich man, we've seen tax collectors, we've seen people who have repented, etc. Why is it that we have this? Well, the answer is given to us directly in verse 10, we don't have to look for long.

For the son of man came to seek and to save the lost. This is the takeaway that we're supposed to have from this passage. So I want you to know the significance of Jesus coming to seek and to save the lost, and also the implications that that would have for us, because there are a number of implications of Him seeking and saving the lost.

Luke's Literary Parallels: The Blind Man, the Rich Ruler, and Zacchaeus

Consider the context of this passage, what had happened before, and the similarities very intentionally highlighted by Luke so that we would see the similarity to the situations.

Before.

First of all, He's very similar to the rich man. He is a wealthy man himself, and in giving half of his goods to the poor, there is an allusion to the man who was asked to give all of his goods to the poor.

Moreover, He's called a chief tax collector. Now as you read in English, this might not be as readily obvious, but chief tax collector, you can imagine tax collector being its own word, and then chief as being a prefix on that word.

So when it says chief tax collector, that's all one word where the prefix is the same word as ruler, archon. Now archon is the word used for the ruler in the previous chapter, the rich man of chapter 18.

And so calling him a ruler, and now calling this man a ruler, although in English you see different words, you are to, if you are reading this in Greek, you are to see similarities even in the word that is chosen to describe this man being a ruler.

He is a ruling tax collector. And yet there are also similarities to the blind man at the end of chapter 18. First of all, he's a man who's rejected by society like the blind man would be. He's one who's considered no better than a Gentile, ostracized by his own people.

Additionally, he is functionally blind. What's his main problem when we first see him? He is not able to see Jesus because he is too short. Once again, Luke is highlighting the similarities between this man and the man who comes before.

That man is too, the blind man was not able to see Jesus. This man who is short is not able to see Jesus. And moreover, Luke has intentionally reframed these narratives and the timing of them, or the way the timing is exposited in his exposition, so that you would associate these two things.

And in 1835, it says, as he drew near to Jericho, you may remember from the last time that we were in Luke, I explained that both Matthew and Mark expressed this as, as he was leaving Jericho. Now Luke says, as he neared Jericho, I don't believe these are contradictions, rather Luke is introducing the whole of the next two sets of narratives, rather than just talking about one narrative that's happening as he is, as he leaves, rather bundles up both of these narratives that happen as Jericho together, so that you would consider them as things that are supposed to be considered together, whereas Matthew and Mark do not present this this way and do not include all these details about Zacchaeus.

So Luke is intentionally, and the way he is presenting this, asking you to compare the blind man to the short man who can't see. Okay, he is, he is asking you to compare him to him, he is asking you also to compare him to the ruler, who is wealthy, who is called to give up his possessions.

You're supposed to see this as being a continuation of the events in the previous chapter and an answer to the events in the previous chapter. And so what is going on here? This man is one who is seeking Jesus.

It says in 19 verse 3, and he was seeking to see who Jesus was. Okay, this is the same word that's used later. He is seeking to see who Jesus was. But he is not able to see him. On account of factors within, he is too short and unable to see him.

But then additionally, he is being prevented by the crowd. Now, the way the ESV puts this, how did it say it? But on account of the crowd, he could not. More literally, it's the crowd was preventing him.

You're supposed to imagine the crowd more actively keeping him from this. The factors within, factors without, are all keeping him from seeing Jesus. He is unable to see Jesus. He is seeking Jesus, but would be unsuccessful if it were not for Jesus himself making this successful.

Because who is it that seeks and saves the lost? It's Jesus. Jesus comes to the man, he says that he must come to his house. There's an imperative that this must happen. And he calls out to him specifically by name.

He chooses him. Now, earlier in Luke, we see that Jesus is not the disciples who choose Jesus, but Jesus who chooses his disciples. This is a continuation of that theme. He restores his dignity. One, him being ostracized by his people and then announcing him as a child of Abraham.

But then also, it's something undignified to climb up into a tree. I'm someone who very much likes climbing into trees, but I recognize that there's something undignified about it. And I've noted that on occasions when I do climb up into trees, I occasionally get comments about it being an undignified thing for a grown man to do.

So he restores, he restores this man's dignity, tells him to come down. He calls him son of Abraham. And he saves the man. He says, this day salvation has come to your house. What is that salvation that has come to his house?

It's Jesus Christ himself. He is the salvation who has come to Zacchaeus' house. And so this answers the question that we have had before in chapter 18. What is impossible with man is possible with God.

How is it possible? It's not quite explained, but now it finally is because the son of man has come to seek and to save the lost. There's another passage that this is very similar to, once again, that you have to ask yourself, why would Luke include this if he has included something so similar?

As very early on in the gospel, Levi, otherwise known as Matthew, is a tax collector, holds a party, hosts Jesus there. People grumble and object to Jesus coming to that party. Many similar things. What is the takeaway from that?

That he has come to save not those who are well, but those who are sick. Those are the ones who are in need of a physician. And so there, the lesson to be learned from Jesus going to the party of a tax collector where there are grumblers is about the object of salvation, the sick.

It is those who are unwell who are to receive salvation. What is the takeaway here? It is about the subject, the one who is doing the saving. It is Jesus who has come to seek and to save the lost. And so we see this narrative pair correspondingly, complementary with these other passages, with the passage about Levi showing the subject of salvation rather than the object of salvation.

We see a pair with the rich man and the blind man in the previous passages to give us the answer to this question, how is it possible that a man seeks and saves the lost? And this is a phrase that if you were hearing it and you were a student of the Old Testament, a particular passage should come to mind.

That would be Ezekiel 34. I'd like you to go ahead and turn there because this is an important part of Jesus' final statement that is the summary statement that alludes to this passage, Ezekiel 34. In Ezekiel 34, the Lord laments that the people who are sheep have no good shepherd.

They are all lost. They have nothing. They cannot find their way. The shepherds that they have been given are no good and do not seek after the sheep. And so the Lord gives an answer. He gives that answer in verses 11 through 16.

Please follow along in Ezekiel 34, verse 11 through 16. For thus says the Lord God, behold, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out, as a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among the sheep that have been scattered.

So I will seek out my sheep and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and will bring them into their own land.

And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel by the ravines and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with a good pasture and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land.

There they shall lie down in good grazing land and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of sheep and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God.

I will seek the lost. I will bring back the strayed. I will bind up the injured and I will strengthen the weak and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice. What does he say in verse 16?

I will seek the lost. I will bring back the strayed. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. He is alluding to this passage. He is the Lord who has come to save his sheep. And it says in verse 23 of this passage also.

And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them. And he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I the Lord will be their God and my servant David shall be prince among them.

I am the Lord. I have spoken. So who will be the shepherd? On one hand, it is the servant David. One will sit on David's throne and he will rule. What do we see immediately after this narrative? Jesus is going to give a parable in a minute, but then he has his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

And it is here that we see the declaration that he is, that he is this Davidic king. And so Jesus in saying that he came to seek and save the lost, alluding to Ezekiel 34, is declaring not only is he the Davidic king that will do this, but he is also the Lord himself who has come to seek and to save.

There is no hope for mere man to save himself. Bible says that none seek him. It says that the wise are blind in Matthew 11, 25. No one seeks him according to Romans 3, 10. Rather, he must seek the lost.

There's some notion of seeking. A lot of people would say they are seekers, but are they really? Do they have any capacity in themselves to go seek for God in a successful way? There are forces within that keep them from it.

There are forces without. No man truly seeks for God. Rather it is necessary for God to seek him. This is the only way salvation can happen is for God to seek and to save the lost. Jesus himself is God.

Jesus himself is the Messiah, the son of David who sits on the throne who seeks and saves.

The lost.

The Son of Man Seeking the Lost and the Assurance of Salvation

And this gives us a guarantee of salvation. He says because this man is a son of Abraham, he says today salvation has come to his house since he also is a son of Abraham. The suggestion here is in terms of cause and effect or things that came before and things that came after, this man's status as a son of Abraham is what leads him to be saved.

In other words, Christ knows who his people are. He is seeking a particular people. This is not just him seeking for whoever will respond to him. Rather, he has a particular people, those sons of Abraham that he is seeking and he is looking for particularly.

So many people reject this. So many people think that it is us who are seeking God, but he is seeking us. He is seeking particularly those sons of Abraham. It is not we who choose him, it is him who choose us.

This is what is repeatedly stated. And so many people also declare this as something that is unclear in Scripture. It is so manifestly clear and it is emphasized. A lot of people would consider this a heady topic that's not worth considering how salvation works.

What else are we supposed to contemplate? What else are we supposed to consider in this world other than the greatness of our salvation? What else is worthy of meditation? Those people who would consider this to not be worthy of meditation, to be an unfruitful task are missing the emphasis that God is giving us in his Word.

Jesus has come to seek and to save the lost. It is not Zacchaeus' seeking that leads him there, it is Jesus' seeking that leads him to salvation. Imagine if you had a lost pet. You would go, you would look for the pet because you wouldn't expect the pet to just come back on its own.

Or maybe there would be some chance, but let's say the pet is blind. Now you really don't think the pet is going to find its way home. Now let's say in addition to the pet being blind, everyone in the neighborhood is your enemy, knows that you love this pet, and would hide it from you if they found it.

Well now you really aren't going to count on it coming. And so you must be the one to go and seek it. Same thing is the case here. It is not through us, it is Jesus who comes, seeks, saves the lost. And he is capable.

There is a guarantee that it will happen because he knows who he's searching for and he is perfect unlike us searching for a lost pet we may not find. He is perfectly capable and he will save every last one.

That is the guarantee given to us in Ezekiel 34. God's answer. He comes, he saves, he knows all, he will accomplish it. Now there are various implications for this reality that Jesus comes to seek and save the lost and this is the means by which the impossible is made possible.

One of those is that it implies joy, that there should be a joy about us in salvation. It says in verse 6, so we hurried and came down and received him joyfully. Consider what makes something a good gift or a gift that would spark a lot of joy and.

Joy to you.

It's not just the value of the thing, there's a lot of context about the gift itself that would make it something that is more joyful. If it is something that is undeserved and you understand the undeservedness of it, it is something that you are going to be more joyful about.

Now if you were invited into the White House, for example, or if you got to go visit the White House, there might be a little bit of joy about that, right? It's understood this is a house that is funded by the public, it is something that there are regular visits to, not necessarily because that's required by law, but there's an understanding that this is something that comes from the people, it belongs to the people, etc.

But let's say you were invited to the palace of a king and this is his own private place, it's not something that's been publicly funded, it is just out of his own wealth and majesty,.

Etc.

There would be a much greater sense of gratitude for that, that you were invited to this place. Same thing that's the case here, salvation is undeserved and it being undeserved gives us much more reason for gratitude for this, for this salvation.

Now addition, a gift that is unlikely or that we are unable to receive beyond just being undeserved, unable or impossible to get access to, is something that is much greater appreciated. Consider people who beat different diseases, someone who recovers from sepsis might be thankful that they recovered from sepsis, it's a life-threatening condition, but a lot of people recover from sepsis, so there's going to be a certain kind of joy about having.

Recovered.

Now if you recover from Ebola, that's a much different thing, okay, life-threatening, just like sepsis is life-threatening, but if you recover from Ebola, you're going to be much more thankful to God that you recovered from that condition.

And so it is that because it is something that is one, undeserved, and two, the man is unable to get because it is not his seeking, it is Christ seeking after us that saves us, it is a cause for much joy, so the fact that it is undeserved, the fact that we are unable are both causes for much joy.

So the fact that the salvation does not come from us but comes from Christ are reasons for this. However, though it does not come from us, it is for us, and the fact that it is for us in particular gives us reason for joy as well.

This is intentional. He is seeking the children of Abraham. In addition to that, He has called this man by name. That is a suggestion to you that this is not just Jesus looking for who might already within Him have the capacity for salvation, already be the kind of person who is near to God.

This is a man who is far from God. This is a man who is a tax collector. This is a man who has everything working against him in terms of him being appropriate or primed for salvation, but it is still personal.

He has sought Him personally. He has called His name personally, and that gives us reason for gratitude as well. Salvation is not something that happens randomly. It is something that happens haphazardly.

Like the atheist at Thanksgiving dinner who is thankful. What are they thankful to? Random chance, fortune, some abstract notion. There's a reason why there isn't real joy in that. There might be some sense of having things, but there's not a real sense of joy or gratitude that would come from having personally and intentionally being given a gift.

It is intentional from God. It's also personal. It's not something that's given to a whole group. Those in the group who come and take it, this is how many people imagine election when they see the Bible use the word election.

They say, oh, well, it's the church that has been elected, but it's the individuals within that get to decide whether or not they are part of that group. That doesn't give as much reason for gratitude as something very personal where He calls us by name, where He desires us in particular to be saved because He has called us.

This is not reason for pride. This is reason for humility because it's not anything in us, and yet at the same time, it is something personal that is for us. Do you remember if you ever... So I was homeschooled most of my life.

However, I did go to public school in kindergarten, and what I remember about public school, one of the things I remember is Valentines, when you're at that age, for some reason, everybody gives each other Valentine's Day cards, and it's just given to the whole class.

You just love the whole class. Everybody gets a Valentine's Day card. Well, is that as meaningful as getting a single one from someone who actually, specially loves.

You?

Right?

There's a big difference in getting a Valentine's Day card as part of a kindergarten class, getting a Valentine's Day card from someone who is not just loving this abstract entity, this classroom, but rather loves you in particular.

So even though it is not from us, and so there's no reason for pride, and there's reason for joy, it is something that is for us, and so there's reason for joy. These are all reasons to rejoice as this man rejoices.

Grumbling, Evangelism, and the Need for Repentance

Now another implication of God seeking us is that there will be grumbling. Okay, so on one hand, there's cause for joy. However, because this is something unnatural, it is supernatural, it is contrary to people's expectations, there will be grumbling.

It says in the verse immediately after, and when they saw it, they all grumbled. He has gone in to be a guest of the man who is a sinner. So they have some disapproval. In addition, just as I said, they are in a way actively preventing him.

That's the way the literal text describes this situation, that the crowd prevents him from seeing. Moreover, we've seen this repeatedly throughout the Gospel of Luke, that people grumble whenever tax collectors and sinners come to Jesus.

So we have had that reinforced many times before. Even though God can save the sinner, He can save the tax collector, there's much grumbling about this. Now, what that means for you is that you should anticipate that there will be grumbling in optimistic evangelical efforts.

As you look to share the Gospel with others, you should expect grumbling, even from within the ranks of Christians, about having an optimistic outlook on evangelism. There is a place for recognizing the hardness of heart.

Jesus does tell His disciples to shake the dust off of their feet in certain circumstances. Yet at the same time, the fact that there is a place for recognizing hardness of heart does not mean that we should doubt the ability of God to save those who are far from Him.

To save those who not necessarily, well, certainly can save the hardest heart, but there are different senses in which someone can be far from God. Someone can be far from God in a way where they have built up a lot of hardness of heart.

Someone can be far from God in more superficial ways that aren't as built up. So there is the reality of the hard heart. At the same time, you should anticipate that there will be grumbling because people will be inclined toward their natural sensibilities that look at these ideas of being near or far from God in a natural sense, reject the supernatural that the Holy Spirit can work in and that Jesus is the one seeking and saving.

That can come off of all kinds of things. People will treat those with different political ideologies as those who are far away, and there is a reality to that. There is a sense in which those who have ideologies that are not God's ideologies, not aligned with biblical ideologies, are in a sense far from God.

But in some ways, these are those who are the most weary and the most in need of salvation. Don't doubt that the Lord can save. I also know, just to give you one example, there was a time when I invited another church to participate in an evangelistic effort toward the Church of Christ.

If you're not familiar with the Church of Christ, not a Christian group, they believe that by your own works, you will be saved. It's kind of the opposite of this, the seeking and saving. They imagine themselves doing it, and that through their baptism, they become saved.

That is not something that is just a saving grace in the sense of building them up in this work of salvation that God is doing, but rather the way that they have right standing with God. Another way of speaking of the Church of Christ, what's called the Church of Christ, obviously not the actual biblical Church of Christ, is Campbellites.

They're Campbellites because they come from a man named Campbell. I invited another church to participate in an evangelistic effort toward these Campbellites, and their response to me was, no, that seems like a waste of time because they are not very interested in salvation.

I was pretty astounded that another church that holds our view of the gospel would respond that way about the just incredulous that God could save these people. Now they wouldn't have said it exactly like that, but this is practically what's being implied with that kind of response.

There will be cynicism around conversions as well. Now once again, some of that may be justified. There are many false converts. We should be as wise as serpents. We should recognize that there are going to be a lot of false converts, yet a lot of times that cynicism will not be grounded in the reality of the work of the enemy, but will rather be grounded in natural sensibilities, once again, that sees men as being far from God in a way where God couldn't save them, so they're not doubting on account of the work of their enemy and understanding he's at work, but they are doubting on account of their own doubts of God himself, so you should not have the wrong kind of cynicism toward salvation.

In addition, you should not have envy around those who joyously receive salvation. You see that too, like with the older brother of the prodigal. Like these here, they are grumbling, not just about Jesus going to the man.

There's a suggestion here that they're even grumbling that this man would be joyful and receive any kind of blessing. Rather, he's one who should be castigated by Jesus and ashamed and not raised up out of his dignity.

You should not be like those who scoff at the eleventh hour workers and are envious of their salvation. Rather, you should be joyous about salvation, so it implies there should be a joy, it implies there will be a grumbling, because if it's something unnatural, then people's natural sensibilities will be at war against the supernatural, and they will grumble when.

They see it.

Third, it implies repentance. If you consider repentance as being a turning away, a turning away from sin and unto God, what does this mean about seeking? This man is seeking. People consider themselves seekers, but the Bible says that no one seeks for God.

What does it mean, then, if they are in some sense seeking? It means their orientation is wrong. They might be seeking, but it's not toward God. Some other way. God seeks them. It implies that at the end of the search, there would be a reorientation, a turning of the way.

If we are sought by God, if we are sought by Jesus, if he seeks and saves the lost, it implies a change in our orientation. Those who are saved do not just continue about in their ways, they are radically transformed.

There's a change in their orientation. You see this man make restitution for his wrongs. He gives back, or he gives half of his goods, and he restores fourfold to others. Now there's no statement here that it is precisely half of his goods that are stolen.

And there may be many that he's defrauded that will not come to him. So, one thing I would have you consider here is that while we are called to make restitution, that is part of what repentance is. We will not always be able to fully right every wrong.

It is not up to us to right every wrong. This is why forgiveness is needed. If you could just pay it back, there's no forgiveness that's needed, is there? But, if we are unable to pay everything back, forgiveness is needed.

Forgiveness from others, for this realm, but then most especially, forgiveness from God. We cannot, while repentance implies that there would be some effort to correct our wrongs, it does not imply that we would be able to completely correct our wrongs.

And so there will always be a need for forgiveness from God, and we should even seek it from others. I can think of, there are people I have in mind who I know that their wealth over a lifetime was built up on evil things.

You know, imagine someone involved in some kind of evil industry like pornography, etc. Right? And that's everything that they have. You know, what does God call them to do? They call them to, in their repentance, go to absolutely nothing, take off the clothes off their back, etc.

I don't think this is necessarily what God calls what is required of true repentance. Sometimes we are just unable to give back everything that has been taken. And so we must rely on forgiveness from the Lord, because we can never.

It's not just that you can't always. In a greater sense, no one can. No one can give back fully what they've done wrong. No one can fully right their wrongs. And so that's, in the negative sense, making some kind of restitution and repentance.

But then also an investment. There's a reorientation, instead of investment in himself, an investment in the Lord. He is no longer focused on himself, but he is focused on God. He cares about the poor.

He is going to invest himself into the Lord. If you are a, if you imagine a sail on a sailboat just flapping around, just doing whatever it sees best, what happens when someone comes and they fix the sail so it has the right orientation?

You know, it's firm. It goes in a particular direction. You naturally are going to be focused on self. All your actions are going to be flailing around without particular direction, unless they are oriented to yourself, which might change from time to time.

But once you are changed by the Lord, it changes you so that you desire investment in him. You ought to have in your mind how you can serve the kingdom to invest in it. If you are changed in your orientation, if he has sought you rather than you him, if your orientation beforehand was not the right one, but rather him finding you changes your orientation, it requires a reconsideration of how you view all your wealth, all your things, all your whole self, all your time, everything about yourself, what your life is for.