Jesus’ main goal during his three years of ministry on Earth was to find and save people who were lost. In Luke 19:10, he revealed the purpose of his ministry like this. “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”
It’s about God’s unquenchable passion for the lost and his unstoppable willingness to make sure to get them back, no matter what it takes, even to the point of risking the life of His only son, Christ our Lord. So, the church is God’s agent for this divine mission and passion for the lost. In other words, God accomplishes his passion for finding the lost through the church and its members.
We’ll explore how we can live out God’s great passion for finding lost people in our lives by reflecting on two true stories today.
In the mid-1990s, a mother and one of her twin babies survived the Rwandan genocide. The Hutu majority government and its militias massacred around one million people of the minority Tutsi population for three months.
When the mother saw the violent mob approaching her home to kill her and her children, she knew she couldn’t save both of her babies, so she had to choose only one. After being taken to another country for safety, a reporter asked her why she chose that particular child. She simply replied, “Because this baby was the weaker one.” Because this baby was the weaker one.
The gospel event started with Mary, who was described as a humble, poor woman. Upon finding out her pregnancy, she praised God, and her song is called “Mary’s Magnificat,” which means “a great song.” And its few lines well described how God had chosen the lowly and humble woman as a vessel of Jesus’ birth. “God has brought down mighty kings from their thrones and lifted up the lowly. The Lord has remembered me, his lowly humble servant!” The gospel started in the highest of heaven, but it took place on the lowest of Earth.
In today’s passage from Luke, the leaders of the Jewish society grumbled about Jesus hanging out with the tax collectors and sinners, who their mainstream Jewish society regarded as the scum of the earth.
And today’s parable of the lost sheep was Jesus’ reply to their complaints.
Another story to reflect on is a summary of a 2017 film titled “Lion: A long way home”. It was a true story about an Indian Australian man named ‘Saroo’. He was separated from his family in India when he was just five years old and couldn’t see them again for 25 years.
Saroo grew up in a very poor family with his single mother, two brothers, and a sister, but they were a happy family until he got separated from his big brother at a local train station. While his brother was working, Saroo was asleep on a bench. He woke up and went to look for his brother. Innocently, he rode a parked train and fell asleep again in the train. When he woke up, the train was moving fast, and the following day, the train stopped at Calcutta, which was 1,500 km away from his home.
He didn’t speak the local language and couldn’t remember the name of his hometown. He spent weeks living on the streets with other street kids, begging and stealing to survive. After being taken into a children’s home later, he was eventually adopted by an Australian couple and moved to Tasmania. He was just six years old at that time.
After Saroo graduated from college, he did not stop looking for his hometown using the Google map. One day, through the Google earth program, he finally found the station where he supposed he was separated from his brother 25 years ago.
Saroo returned to India with his Australian mum and found found his childhood home and had an emotional reunion with his mother, sister and brother, but not his big brother. Several weeks after Saroo were separated from his big brother 25 years ago, his brother had died in a railway accident, searching his lost brother, Saroo.
When Saroo’s Indian mother met his Australian mother, she hugged her and cried, repeatedly saying, “Thank you. Thank you for looking after our son for me.” I believe this is exactly how God would feel when we bring a lost one back to Him.
A central part of the Christian journey is caring for others, especially those who are lost, struggling, or in need. When you show this kind of care through your words and actions, you are participating in God’s heart and his mission.
However, it requires us to make choices that are often against our human nature. We are all born with such a human instinct to care mainly for our own families, loved ones and close friends.
For that very reason, whenever you want to follow God’s passion, you might have to fight against your own instincts, which will affect how you spend your time, money, and even how you make friends.
But this is the good news for you. Every time you act with God’s heart for others, no matter how small the action, God sees it, overjoys and says to you: “Thank you. Thank you for saving my lost child,” because God is a father of all, especially the lowly, the needy, and the lost. When you do this, your life on Earth will be filled with God’s presence and all His blessings.