"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."
John 3:17
Do not misunderstand the purpose of Jesus' life and ministry; do not mis-assign His target: not the flawless but the flawed; not the righteous but the unrighteous; not the sinless but the sinful; not the found but the lost; not the best but the worst.
Jesus came to find and (re)direct the lost and directionless; He came to put purpose in our journey and destination at the end of it. He came to re-purpose our flaws, mistakes and weaknesses into motivations, messages, and strengths. And so, regardless of why we are unworthy, or even how unworthy we are, God has made us His beloved mission. He has determined us, all of us who have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, worth His time and His love.
- NOT TO CONDEMN BUT TO SAVE
Jesus was frequently questioned about, and judged for, his association with... well, sinners. In Matthew 9:9-12 specifically, adversaries of Jesus asked His disciples why Jesus interacted with the people society had condemned and socially quarantined. Jesus answered that the sick need a doctor, not the healthy. Society might have condemned and quarantined them, but God had not. God, Spiritual-Physician that He is, had compassion on them; spiritual stethoscope on their souls, He diagnosed that they needed healing. Jesus was the prescription; His ministry, the word and philosophy of God was the treatment.
We, therefore, who have insecurities, deficiencies, and emotional turbulence, are most fortunate. For God is a specialist in our ailments. He is here and near and most importantly, equipped, to heal us. Although so many authoritarians would have arrived to condemn, Jesus came to save. He came to sentence us to life rather than death, and helps us to make the spiritual crossover.
- ONE SINNER WHO REPENTS
If you have ever believed that your mistakes or wandering have made you less valuable to God, read the Parable of the Lost Son in the gospels. In the Parable there is a father with two sons. One of the sons remained with and loyal to his father, but the younger son did not. The younger son left and consequently languished. He struggled in life and became desperate enough to reflect on his choices. He realized he needed to go home, but knew his father would not accept him back as a beloved son. But he had learned from his mistakes and had changed; he began to value the family he had been born into. He hoped, at most, that his father would take pity on him, relent, and allow him back as a servant.
The son journeyed back to his home. While was still a long way off, his father noticed his younger son and had not pity, but compassion for his son. The father ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him. Immediately the younger son repented and humbled himself before his father. He felt unworthy; he did not believe he deserved the blessings he squandered, rejected and neglected.
But the father began to clothe his son in the familial vestment. So great was the father's joy at his son's return that he immediately restored him and planned a celebration for his arrival. He exclaimed: "...my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found." Though we had turned our back to Him, the love and mercy of God rushes toward us the moment we decide to turn our face toward him. He considers our change of heart our return to life, and by Him we are welcomed home as beloved children once again.
It is thanks to the elder son's confusion that we understand why the wayward son was restored to his father's good graces so readily. The father had to explain to him that his younger brother's return was so beautiful because he had been dead. The elder son had always obeyed his father, unrighteousness, thus death had never claimed him. But the younger brother was in the clutches of death, he was a slave to sin, he was disconnected from the Kingdom. His return was so spectacular because it had been so unlikely. He return was so spectacular because he had been so far away! He had almost to the point of no return. His return was so spectacular because instead of suffering a loss, the Kingdom of God could celebrate a restoration, and addition.
- SAVES THE ONE
In Luke 15:1-7, Jesus used an analogy of sheep to explain that God charges into the wilderness to save one of His lost ones. Just as in the Parable of the Lost son, those who never go astray are loved, but so, deeply, are those who do. In fact, we learn that "there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance."
We are cherished even more for who we are because of who we were. In His appreciation for us, God takes into account the arduous journey we take from past-self to present-self. After all, The people who left the kingdom worked harder than anyone else to be in it. The sick child restored to health, the lost child who found his way home, is cause for heaven-wide celebration.
- APPOINTED TO HIS SERVICE
In the book of 1 Timothy 1:12-17, Paul confessed that even though he considered himself to be the worst sinner of all sinners, by God's grace, he was appointed to His service. Returned children, healed children, are not just restored to a place in heaven, they are also given a purpose.
Jesus enabled Paul, put him directly in the ministry, because Paul's past served the impact of his future. Paul was known, infamously, as the persecutor of the Christian faith. Having come further than anyone else, from the brink of death to the peak of life, Paul's testimony carried a weight different and heavier than anyone else's could have. When he, Paul, the most known, most deadly persecutor of Christians to converted to Christianity the world changed; the ministry of Jesus reached further than ever before across the world and generations.
Jesus came to save sinners and Paul is proof. Paul's life exemplified the pattern of God's patience: this, exclaimed Paul's life, is the pattern that is the restoration of the repentant sinner: We go from death to life! Lost to found. Sick to healed. The faith and wisdom we gained during the journey back become the tools and materials we use to bring others with us back with us. Our value is increased all the more; our mistakes and weaknesses, hurts and scars, the process of our repentance and return, teaches us how best to help, to heal, to rescue the people who are what we used to be!
Maybe you are the lost son, the lost sheep, someone who walks away from or even against God. If you are, Jesus came specifically for you. Your heartbeat is in His ears, your thumbprint is on His body, your hurt has been destined for His healing. He has planned a place for you in the kingdom, a purpose for you in this life. He is closer to you than anyone else; it is your voice He most wants to hear, your face He most wants to see.
Until now you've shown Him your back, we all have at certain times and moments in our life. We are not perfect in any moment, situation, relationship or act. There are times in everyone's day and life when our back, instead of our face, is toward Him. We lose our patience, we resist forgiveness, we make a selfish choice, relent to doubt or to temptation. It is in those moments precisely that God is most fiercely present, ready to sit and speak with us; the Great Physician, ready to heal us of the greed or lust or anger or meanness or depression that made us sick.