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Gerry &
Julie Gutierrez' Update
Jesus did not have to pass by Jericho or Samaria First
Thought series on Luke 19:1-10 Zacchaeus the Tax Collector. 19 Jesus
entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A
man was there by the name of Zacchaeus;
he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He
wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see
over the crowd. 4 So he ran
ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was
coming that way. 5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked
up and said to him, ÒZacchaeus, come down immediately.
I must stay at your house today.Ó 6 So
he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. 7 All the people saw this and began to
mutter, ÒHe has gone to be the guest of a sinner.Ó 8 But Zacchaeus
stood up and said to the Lord, ÒLook, 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.Ó 9 Jesus said to him, ÒToday
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.Ó Jesus
did not have to pass by Jericho or Samaria. The Lord of lords, the God of gods and Son of
God do not "have to doÓ anything at all. Nevertheless Jesus passed by Jericho and
Samaria. He did not only go to Jericho and Samaria, but he said to Zacchaeus "I must stay in your house today".
On the way to Galilee "He had to go through Samaria". In both
cases, Jesus is "passing by" to some place else. Yet there was a
divine appointment with one individual. It was not even the need of the lost
that prompts Jesus to go to either of these places. It was the sovereignly
given word to Abraham and his descendants in Covenant that make him go in
search of the elect. These individuals are singled out as
"sinners", in the opinion of their people and by their own admission
and Jesus' words who said: "The Son of Man came to seek and to save what
was Lost". Let us see, A stop over for a water
break. A blind by the side of
the road. A woman sick for twelve
years. A father with a demon possessed son. A widow with a dead only
son. A Father with a dying
daughter. A centurion with a dying
servant. And Jesus casually passing by?
No way! There is no such a thing as Casualty. There is no such a thing as Chance. There is no such a thing as Accidents. There is no such a thing as Fate. There is no such a thing as Coincidence. There is no such a thing as Luck. There is no such a thing as Misfortune. * These are secular words that have work their
way into our Vocabulary like illegal aliens who have legalized their status by
squatter and found a place in the dictionary. Their seemingly innocent presence in the Land
of the Free where the rights of the individual is worshipped, do great harm to
the legal citizens of the land by displacing out of the job to the rightful
citizens or rightful words, just as ÒGoshÓ and ÒGeeÓ is replacement of God and
Jesus. There is no such a thing a Jesus going
aimlessly passing by from here to there, like an ant on a driveway. Our God is
not only perfect and Orderly, but He is Omnipotent, Wise and Powerful enough
that He has not left anything to chance. He is a sovereign God and has a
careful inventory of the number of my hair including the ones that fall on the
sink and the shower of my bathroom and the ones blown by the wind as I ride my
bicycle. Our God Òattends the funeral" of a little
bird that falls dead from the nest to the ground. He also remembers the day He
painted its feathers and feed him multigrain and juicy worms for breakfast. God does not forget the many songs the little
bird sing to Him early in the morning and through the day while amusing Him
running like the sandpaper leaving foot prints on the sand of the sea shore
with its skinny little legs. Those beautiful parallel even footprints that are
erase by the waves of the sea as if no one has even been there. Thus the life
of a small bird pass away unnoticed by men but noticed by God. How could such a purposeful God who is able to
create and maintain his creation not have purpose and order for greater things?
After all he has said that we are more important than many sparrows. God indeed cares for us and dearly. He knows
our end from the beginning and He has planned every step of the way. His Will
and Word govern the World. Nothing whatsoever comes to pass weakens His
Sovereign Rule. Any child and the child like have no
problem accepting the immutable predestined nature of our lives. As soon as you
teach a child he does not depart from the truth of Omnipotence and Sovereignty
of God. Becoming an adult and enjoying too much the
accumulative wisdom of our year has alienated us from the humility of a child
and has robbed us of childlikeness. The sad thing is that the so-called ÒwisdomÓ
has been invaded by the secular. The Òwise of this worldÓ is like ÒThe proud
WheatÓ with more straw than grains to show but stands tall and straight in its
fruitless pride. True wisdom with its many grains on the straw
bends over in humility at the weight of its fruit. The beauty of predestination
is that it places the root of our salvation over space and time and above the
Sun away from the reach of any harm in life, as we know it. Besides, it could not be eternal that
which is rooted in time and space. Nothing that has a beginning will live
forever. Eternity by Nature does not have a beginning neither has an end. We
are not only made to last forever, we are eternal. The fitting question at this time is, where
were we before the foundation of the World? The only answer is that we
were in the thoughts of God. We are not a creation like the universe, which
came into existence by the power of the word of God constituted and helplessly
dependent from Time, Space, Matter, and Movement. Should we miss any one of
these four elements, it would be impossible to talk about existence, as we know
it in the material world. All that is of the seen world are lifeless and
living matter. Man is more that the lifeless and living matter. God did not
created us in such a manner of all the created things. He made us with his own
hands carefully and wonderfully superior to all creation as the crown of the
created world. Even so, as marvelous as the human body is, itÕs only our
dwelling place designed to return where it came from. Eventually all things, came from nothing and go
back to nothing, including the heavens and the earth, the sun, the moon and the
stars. All things will pass away including the body made by his hands. So what is left? Nothing, but God and
what is of God. He alone is the Great I am! If we became, it is because He
is. We derive our existence from God. We are of God and for God! At death
the spirit is separated from the body. The body goes back where it came from
and the spirit to God who gave it. Eureka? NO! Because Eureka mean "I found it".
We do not learn who we are by finding but by revelation. What is the
great revelation here? God give it! While everything is created and made life
and life eternal is God's direct given of Himself of His nature by our nostrils
and infusing life in the lifeless body made out of mud. While animals and plant
are alive, only men have life. Live is a person not a
estate of being or existence. God lend to our body his breath and he claims
back at death His breath as the spirit goes back to God who gave it!
We are not our body. We are our Spirit. We are of God, for God and go back to
God. For God so loved the world that He gave! Love is in the given. Jesus had to pass by NicodemusÕ place to pick
up one lost in Religion. Jesus did not have do
anything but he did and must do it personally. He could have order angels to do
it. He could have done it with an Executive order. But he chose to do it
personally because there is no other way to be saved but by the one and only
Savior who is reconciling the World unto Himself. Notice the words "Unto
Himself". He is claiming His own! His breath from
our nostrils unto himself. God saving his living spirit from them.
Salvation is not rewarding a bunch of miserable traitor who have bitten the
hand that give them life and feed. On top of it all, salvation is not a man
centered plan to take sinful men to a better place so they can really enjoy
themselves forever as if God owes them the blessing of Salvation. It is not at all about the worthiness of
people, it is all about God! It is God who is eternal, it is God who has no
beginning or end, it is God who is Love and has share Himself with us.
It is God who in Jesus the head claiming back the
members of His own body unto Himself. There is nothing to love in the sinner.
It is that of God, which he can and will not lose. Jesus came to seek and save
by the power of his word and his work on the cross the sinners who by
repentance are going back home in the shoulder of Jesus. Gerry Gutierrez
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