See, Seek and Save
Read Time: 15 mins, 15 secs
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed. He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord’s favor has come, and with it, the day of God’s anger against their enemies. To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for his own glory.
Isaiah 61:1-3 NLT
I want you to imagine it. You are among those there when Jesus first begins to preach publicly. He opens His mouth and begins to proclaim the good announcement that the promised and prophesied time of revival and liberation is now here. He makes the bold and revolutionary assertion that we can turn from our tired ways of living and turn to His rest because the kingdom of God is at hand! We see it in Matthew 4:17 and Mark 1:15, but I love how Luke, the gospel written for the outcasts, describes it in chapter 4 of his account. He describes Jesus unrolling a scroll and reading Isaiah 61 as He preaches at His hometown church. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for He has chosen me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives be released, that the blind see, that the oppressed be set free and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.” This may be a big deal that you'll only begin to grasp the gravity of when you realize what Jesus is saying and who He is saying this to.
As Howard Thurman argued, Jesus is the God of the disinherited, disenfranchised, and destitute. Emmanuel, God not just for us but with us, was intentionally born into an ostracized family as a part of an oppressed group to show that He stands with and isn't afraid of the broken-hearted we often ignore. In fact, He is near to them.
He is talking to the Nazarenes, the ones who no one thought any good could come out of, who were already a part of the people under Roman rule. These oppressed people had heard the stories of Babylonian exile and were still singing the slave songs and spirituals their foremothers and fathers held on to for hope as they waded through the waters of the Red Sea. They were well acquainted with a worry and weight that made life feel like walking through a dense fog. A new kingdom, a new structure, a new worldview, a new life and experience was good news for those at the bottom. It was good news for those who were too weak to even cry out for revival, renewal, and rescue. It was good news for those who could never seem to win on their own.
It was good news to the shepherds, the outsiders, who were told in Luke 2:10 that they don't have to be afraid anymore because God’s nearness meant good news that would bring great joy to not some but all people. It was good news to the unnamed and unclaimed woman whose ailment she couldn't control forced her out of community, church, and commerce and made it so that anyone or anything she touched was considered just as unclean and undesirable as her. It was good news to the lepers whose condition ate away at everything they knew and loved while forcing them to die alone. It was good news for the blind and crippled whose limitations reminded them daily that they couldn't work hard enough to produce a life of abundance. It was even good news to the religious leaders who were in the right family, right career, and earned the right degrees but still lacked peace, rest, and a sense of purpose and wholeness.
It was good news to those carrying heavy burdens they couldn't seem to share or admit because He said His is light. It was good news to the weak because He offered strength. It was good news for the worried because He offered peace. It was good news to those with dull and lifeless experiences because He promised life abundantly. It was good news for those who were sick and tired of being sick and tired because He promised to bring rest. And if it was good news for them, and you can find yourself in their shoes, it's good news for you!
The Bible argues that this good news is so good that heaven and earth can't even keep silent about it. Angels can't shut up about it. This good news has the power to renew all from the inside out. The good news of God’s kingdom doesn't just mean a new economic structure, religious structure, governmental structure, and cultural structure; it means a new ecosystem from which we thrive. Rivers in the desert. Life in the dead places. The psalmist argues that all of nature celebrates the coming King and Judge. It can't help but proclaim the glory of its Creator!
This is the good news of the gospel. Jesus stepped down from perfection into imperfection to perfectly cover the imperfect. He touches the unclean and allows the unclean to touch Him. He gives audience to the unnamed woman lost in the crowd, voice to the silenced. He doesn't just make your life on earth abundant and free; He gives you eternal life. Death is defeated. He has gained victory over the penalty; the power and the presence of the sins that so easily beset you. The result of your sin should be eternal death, but God's free gift is eternal life. Like David, coming out to your war and volunteering to fight a giant others couldn't beat, His victory created victory for you.
Every story in the scriptures is pointing to this so that you'll never be able to argue that it's not the best news for you. John argues that because God is love, you don't have to be afraid of the judgment you may deserve or have seen glimpses of in your world. Why? Because fear has to do with punishment and God’s perfect love casts out all fear. You’re claimed. You’re covered. I get that you don't deserve it and can't work to earn it, but Paul in Ephesians argued that before the foundation of the world, God already made up His mind about choosing you. Yes you. Pause and read it. Ephesians 1:3-11. (I'd even say to write out the passage and replace “us” with your name.)
The text says He has blessed you with not just some but every spiritual blessing in both heaven and earth, past tense. He loved you before you. Before you could do anything to earn or deserve it, He saw you and sought you when others didn't. Yes, you. He sat with you when others wouldn't. He decided to see you as holy and without fault in His eyes. This means that even when you sin, and He expects you to, He won't count it against you because you're covered when you accept His gift. Hallelujah! He said that when He forgives, He casts your sin into the depths of the sea and remembers them no more. You are asking God why you, and He literally doesn't remember why not you. Your record has been expunged. You've been acquitted.
And that's not all; He adopted you so that you’d benefit from the inheritance you didn't earn or deserve. The Bible says we're joint heirs with Christ. What He gets, we get. You may have failed the test, but we get the perfect student's grade. Why did He do this? Simply because He wanted to, and a King does what He wants. WHAT!? Me? Broken, busted, and disgusted, me? Absolutely. You have an opportunity to accept the gift of liberation. Yes, you. The angels in Luke argued that it is good news that brings great joy to all. Old, young, rich, poor, gay, straight, trans, Israeli, Palestinian, black, white, democrat, republican, Lakers fan, Celtics fan… WHATEVER! WHEREVER! You are never too far gone or too messed up. The Bible says that WHOEVER calls on the name of the Lord can and will be saved, not because they did something but because He did. It's not up for discussion or debate. It’s good news for all!
Jesus came to bring about a new way of life. He came to birth a new reality. A reality where the guilty are forgiven, and their sins are forgotten. A reality where the marginalized are brought near, and the broken-hearted are comforted. Read the beatitudes in Matthew 5. Look who Jesus comforts. Look who He blesses. Jesus came to turn what we have come to know and expect on its head. He came to free, forgive, and be a good and present Father. He came to be near. He came to love. He came to give. He came to seek.
All through the Bible we see a God prioritizing the work of seeing, seeking, and saving the lost. As early as Genesis, when sin enters the world, His first response to separation is to seek and save. To comfort and cover, not condemn. All through the Scriptures, God is using various stories to show us that at the core of His character He desires to get close enough to bring comfort and build the relationship necessary for rescue.
The tabernacle was God’s way of being with His people. Then Jesus came in the flesh to be even closer. Jesus then said He would pour out His Spirit so that He wouldn't just be with us but in us. Now, through the power of His Spirit working through us, He wants to bring a sense of heaven to earth before we go to heaven to be with Him forever. He wants to give the world a preview so that they, for themselves, can taste and see that God is good and trust Him enough to accept His invitation to eternity. The gospel isn’t just the good news of what God does in and to our lives; it’s the good news of how He wants to work in and through our lives to help someone else experience the same. If we’re filled with the same Spirit, we should be empowered to accomplish the same things for others.
This is why God commissioned His church to function as His body. While the literal body of Christ ascended to heaven, I love how the book of Matthew is the only synoptic gospel that gives us the great commission but not the ascension, almost arguing that if we, as the symbolic body of Christ, the church, allow God to lead us, it will be as though Christ never left. Through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we now function as Jesus did on earth. While He finished His mission on earth, we continue His plan of seeing, seeking, and saving through our interactions now. If the Spirit of the Lord is upon us too, it should empower us to be like Jesus and bring good news to the poor, comfort the broken-hearted, and bring liberation to the prisoner.
There are three areas of our lives this should show up in. How we see, how we seek, and how we partner with Jesus in spreading salvation.
Do We See Like Jesus?
If we are to function like Jesus, we need to see like Jesus. When I speak of seeing someone, I'm talking about truly acknowledging them and their humanity, sympathizing with their unique plight, and responding to them as if they hold value as someone made in the image of God. We’ve built a world where considering others' views or how our actions or the world's actions have led them to feel or react seems almost offensive to us. You don’t have to agree with how they react, but can you sympathize with how they feel?
Our American culture has become so individualistic that we have selective seeing. Our default is often selfish self-preservation and not others-centered sympathy. We live in a world where empathy and kindness are viewed as weak when the Bible argues that they were what moved Jesus to action. The original language points to His bowels moving Him to compassion. He felt it in His guts and acted.
It’s time to allow the Spirit to open our eyes to the brokenhearted, depressed, oppressed, and ostracized. We often easily walk past and ignore others who are also made in the image of God without stopping to see them for who they are, what they’ve experienced, and what they stand in need of. Maybe it's because we're scared. Maybe we're so focused on sustaining ourselves that we can't slow down to see others. Maybe giving an audience to others makes us feel forgotten? Maybe allowing others to admit their hurt scares us because it may lead to them acknowledging sins that we or people like us have committed against them. Ask yourself what groups you may hold bias towards. What marginalized community have you struggled to truly see? Why is it so scary to slow down enough to make space for someone and to hear and acknowledge their reality? And how can the gospel working in your life dissipate these hurdles?
Do We Seek Like Jesus?
Jesus didn't just acknowledge all people, their emotions, and their experience; He sought closeness with them. He sought community with them. He sought connection with them. There's so much we could unpack here, and I hope God makes this explosively clear to you, but being filled with the Spirit should push you to do the same.
It has been said that Jesus mingled among feeble, forgotten, and frail men as one who desired their good. He listened to their stories. He got to know their dreams and fears. He studied them. He asked questions and listened more than He spoke. Can we say we do the same? He joined Himself to those whom society tried so hard to forget. The question is, do we care enough to do the same for the prostitutes, tax collectors, and notorious sinners of our day?
It’s not just that he sought them; He sacrificed for them. That’s what love truly is. Imagine the social risk it takes to touch an unclean leper or be seen talking to, eating with, and building a relationship with a prostitute. You know you are acting like Jesus when people begin to accuse you based on the brokenness of the people you know and love. Imagine the sacrifice and hardship it takes to seek sinners?
I want you to imagine what it was like to take off divinity and put on humanity. Imagine what it would've been like to trade in omnipresence for human weariness and fickleness. Imagine giving up heaven for a first-century barn. Imagine fitting infinite capacity into a finite cavity for the sole purpose of being crucified. It's like giving up humanity to be a worm. Will you lower and even limit yourself because you’re committed to others? How serious will you be about incarnational ministry? How unselfish? How serious will you be about leaving the comfort of the 99 to seek the 1?
Do We Save Like Jesus?
We aren’t just called to see and seek for no reason. If we believe what God said about us, we’re the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and witnesses of God's goodness tasked with calling all men and women to partake in the gift we’ve experienced. The first thing the Spirit is pointed out for prompting is a desire and power to witness and proclaim the good news. While we don’t do the saving on a spiritual level, we are called to partner with God in spreading His message of salvation in the spiritual and showing it in the physical.
The Gospel is first and foremost the good news about what has been done through Jesus, but it can't help but produce visible effects in the lives and communities of those impacted by it, including justice, compassion, healing, reconciliation, and care for the vulnerable.
Notice that Jesus didn’t just come to see, seek, and save in the spiritual. He often used physical liberation as an accompanying sign of the spiritual liberation He offered. What do I mean? Jesus didn’t just forgive the crippled and leave them crippled. Jesus did not just cast out the demons; He left the man clothed. When Jesus brought sight to blinded eyes in the physical, He was showing the new vision He wanted to offer in the spiritual. When He freed those from chains of oppression in the physical, He was pointing to a liberation in the spiritual. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead physically to show us what He could resurrect in our lives spiritually. This is important because the Hebrew reader would see this as literal and metaphorical. The gospel should show up in how we are reconciled to community. It should show up in how judgment and justice are given. It should show up in justice rolling down like a stream. Read through Isaiah, Amos, Micah, and the other minor prophets' words of comfort, conviction, and correction, especially during the time of Babylonian exile. Look at the good news or gospel God calls His people to look forward to. Look at what He calls them to fight for on earth.
James chapter two said that a true faith in Jesus would be accompanied by works such as clothing the poor and feeding the hungry. Micah 6:8 calls us to do what is good, and that is to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. While the gospel isn't just social justice and liberation, the gospel is incomplete without it. Look at the reprimand and realignment found in Isaiah 58.
“Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast. Shout aloud! Don’t be timid. Tell my people Israel of their sins! Yet they act so pious! They come to the Temple every day and seem delighted to learn all about me. They act like a righteous nation that would never abandon the laws of its God. They ask me to take action on their behalf, pretending they want to be near me. ‘We have fasted before you!’ they say. ‘Why aren’t you impressed? We have been very hard on ourselves, and you don’t even notice it!’ “I will tell you why!” I respond. “It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves. Even while you fast, you keep oppressing your workers. What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarreling? This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me. You humble yourselves by going through the motions of penance, bowing your heads like reeds bending in the wind. You dress in burlap and cover yourselves with ashes. Is this what you call fasting? Do you really think this will please the Lord? “No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people. Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help. “Then your salvation will come like the dawn, and your wounds will quickly heal. Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind. Then when you call, the Lord will answer. ‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply. “Remove the heavy yoke of oppression. Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors! Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon (Isaiah 58:1-10 NLT).”
Do you hear this? They were going to church every day and fasting, but still in sin and selfishness because they weren't sacrificing. They hid from family members who needed help. They oppressed those who were wrongly imprisoned. They spread rumors instead of standing up for the hurting, and God is saying He wasn't listening to them because of it. Jesus Himself said in Matthew that there would be people turned down at the gates of glory because their lack of care for the imprisoned, naked, and hungry proves they really didn't believe. What does your action say about your belief?
If you seek to see, seek and partner with Jesus in His work of salvation; you too must commit to being used to help provide a physical liberation that makes spiritual liberation seem possible. Your job isn’t just to preach the word; it’s to live it. Prisoners should be freed in the physical as well as the spiritual because you showed up. Foreigners should find friendship because of you. The voiceless should have a voice because you spoke up.
Jesus said that the Spirit was upon Him and empowering Him to bring good news to those who were sick and tired of being sick and tired. My question is, do you also have the same Spirit if that divine directive isn't also consuming you? The good news is that the same Spirit that led Jesus can change your heart and mind about your neighbor. You can invite Him into your heart today.
Questions to Consider:
Do you recognize that this all-encompassing gospel is for you too? Have you recognized how it should revolutionize every aspect of your life?
Have you allowed the Holy Spirit to lead you to impact others the way that Jesus impacted you? By seeing, seeking, and saving?
What has made it hard for you to see, seek, and help to save others, and how does the gospel's message in your life help you in further committing to that call?
