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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
‘The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.’
Luk_19:10
I. His own nature as ‘the Son of Man.’—This name frequently applied to Christ by Himself, never, in the Gospels, applied to Him by others, possessed peculiar force and peculiar advantages. It declared His special connection with the Jew, and also identified Him with the whole of humanity. The name is a Messianic name.
(a) The true Messiah is the Son of Man. No other could fulfil the promise made to Abraham.
II. The man’s condition as being confessedly lost.
(a) The description Christ gives of the man, and of every man through sin, is perfect. In a single word, He comprehends all that is dark and terrible, all that is helpless and hopeless. The darkest features in human life, the most painful events in the world, are suggested to our minds.
(b) The description Christ gives is merciful. The Pharisees said sneeringly, ‘A man that is a sinner.’ Christ’s simply says, ‘That which was lost.’ There is room for pity, for sorrow, in the word Christ employs.
(c) The description Christ gives is hopeful. Humanity, as it hears that Christ concerns Himself with that which was lost, feels that the vilest and worst of its children may hope in Him.
III. His own mission, in its purpose and method.—‘To seek and to save the lost.’ In calling Zacchæus, in going to his house, Christ was simply doing what He came to do.
(a) The work of the Son of Man is saving man. He came for no other purpose.
(b) The method of Christ is fitted to the purpose of Christ.
Illustration
‘Whittier lamented the tendency to read the Bible as though every sentence was written in the past. Do not read it, “He was able to save,” because it is written, “He is able to save.” Sir James Young Simpson was a famous doctor, and always so cheered his patients on entering a sick room that some of them said the charm of his presence was worth more to them than all his medicines. A young man once asked him, “What is the greatest discovery you ever made, Sir James?” He thought he knew what the answer would be, but it was not what he thought. “My young friend,” was the reply, “the greatest discovery I ever made was that I was a great sinner, and Jesus Christ is a great Saviour.” “I saw that I wanted a perfect righteousness to present me without fault before God, and this righteousness was nowhere to be found but in the Person of Jesus Christ.” So said John Bunyan in Grace Abounding. And very touching are the words of Charles Dickens: “Oh, may I, with a grey head, turn a child’s heart to that Figure yet, and a child’s trustfulness and confidence!” The great novelist knew humanity well, and from such a confession of faith I think we may say he knew the Lord too, and acknowledged Him as the only Saviour.’