A Heart for Rescue

 Read Luke 15

It’s human nature to look down on others. In our minds, we can always convince ourselves that we are better than someone in some way.

The Pharisees and teachers of the law had their inner circles that others were not invited within.  They also defined the outer circles.  There were lepers and the unclean.  They had no business hanging out with these most righteous leaders.

And then there were the tax collectors. They didn’t really violate God’s law but they were traitors to their own people.  Nobody needed to be hanging out with them.  This was self-inflicted exile as far as the righteous were concerned.

And then there were the sinners.  They didn’t obey God’s laws.  Maybe they tried and maybe they didn’t but they fell short and no righteous person would hang out with them.

That is, no righteous person except the most righteous of all, Jesus.  Jesus went where he wanted and talked with whom he pleased and that included sinners, tax collectors, and those afflicted with disease.

The Pharisees and teachers of the law considered him to be very much out of bounds as far as righteous living went.  Jesus had a different perspective for them and for us.

God wants us to be an intimate part of his family. He wants us close. He promises that when we draw near to him, he draws near to us.

There is a heaven and there is a hell and God wants us in heaven, for eternity.

So when we stray from his path—you remember God’s way and everything else—he doesn’t discount us and discard us and disown us, he considers us lost and in need of rescue.

Jesus used three parables—The Lost Sheep, The Lost Coin, and The Lost Son to make his point.  And his point is simple.

If we who are flawed humans can rejoice over finding a lost sheep or a lost coin or the return of a lost son, how much more does God and all in his kingdom rejoice when a sinner repents and comes home to God.

We understand rejoicing in heaven.  What we struggle with is rejoicing as we strive to live in God’s kingdom now. 

If someone has wronged us, our human nature wants us to look down on them.

If someone is just outright living without a moral compass, we must be better than they are.

If someone is outside of our circle, they must be less of a person than we are.

We can be so like the Pharisees in so many ways. We can look to exclude. We can look to disqualify. We can look to discard, all the while thinking we are in good stead with our heavenly Father.

But disqualification is not our objective. Rescue is our mission. We are to reach the lost with the good news of life in Jesus Christ and pray that all respond to the Holy Spirit.

We often look at the lost sheep and the lost coin and the lost son but forget the lesson we find in the older son who stayed with his father.

He kept the rules. He worked like a slave. He walked the narrow path and he was angry that his father loved his brother even after all that he had done.

The Pharisees and teachers of the law walked the straight and narrow but they never understood the heart of God. God desires none to perish. He desires all to come home—regardless of what they have done.

God desires all to return to the fold and he desires us to welcome them home—regardless of what they have done.

We could read Luke 15 and say that’s cool, knocked out 3 parables today or we could say God, please give me eyes to see the lost as those in need of rescue.

God provision me for the rescue mission that you have given me.

God grant me the charity in your heart that I may love those who are different from me or who have offended me or who I just don’t like.

We can read this chapter and just catalog the lessons or we can be moved to rescue all that we can.

I hope we have the heart of one who will rescue the lost.

I hope we will be a part of the celebration in heaven when a sinner repents.

I hope that we receive and live with the heart of God.

Amen.