Scripture:
Luke 15:
We
read in verse 2 that Jesus "receives sinners and eats with them."
Luke uses this word "receive" six other times in his
writings and every time it means "eagerly await or expect and look
for." Jesus is not
just receiving sinners; he is looking for them and eagerly awaiting their
coming.
He
is saying: I welcome sinners because I am the incarnation of God's love
pursuing the lost. I am the shepherd seeking the sheep. I am the woman seeking
her coin. I am the father who
finds a lost son and celebrates with all his house.
Every month in Chicago 20 to 30
unclaimed people are buried. People who
have nobody that knows or cares. They
just die. Someone finds them on the
street or in a park or in an alley or in a lonely tenement. The officials search for relatives. The Medical Examiner’s Office waits and holds
the bodies. No one comes forward to
claim the body. A hundred-eighty-foot
long trench is dug at the cemetery and the wooden boxes are lined up next to
each other and buried. No stone. And no marker.
This is a picture of lostness. Not a single person seems to know or care
when they die. But ultimate lostness is
when one is cut off from GOD.
Easter is about the love of GOD
coming into the cities and suburbs of our world to find lost sons and
daughters. It’s about the identity of
JESUS and the meaning of His mission in the world.
This is what JESUS’ birth, death,
burial, and resurrection is about!
JESUS is Risen . . . !
Richard Holloman
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