Luke 19:5-10
Child of God: Rediscovering Your True Identity – Luke 19:5-10
Luke 19:5-10 (NIVUK)
5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, 'Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.' 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. 7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, 'He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.' 8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, 'Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.' 9 Jesus said to him, 'Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.'
Commentary
Revd. Mark Fletcher: So Jesus sees that Zacchaeus is lost. But he also sees that he is a child of God. And of course this is the gift that the gospel of Jesus offers. That we are helped to rediscover our true identity. Instead of the masks that we hide behind. And that true identity might be more humble. More ordinary. Might be a small part of a bigger whole. But it’s part of something infinitely greater than we could ever dream of. To be a child of God is to be part of the family of God. It is the greatest privilege we could have. Jesus sees Zacchaeus’ lostness. But he also sees that he is a child of God. And is worthy of redeeming. And I think that those two things are necessarily true of all of us to a greater or lesser extent. This is the gospel. We are more lost than we realise. And we are more loved than we can imagine. So everything changes for Zacchaeus at this moment. It’s a wonderful turnaround. And he shows us something of what redeems us. And what repentance looks like. Because repentance isn’t just to be sorry. It literally means to turn around. To put things right.