AUG 17

Luke 19:1-7
Memorise Matthew 5:44
“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Most of you know the episode of Zacchaeus climbing a sycamore tree to see Jesus. Zacchaeus was the chief of the tax collectors, and he was rich, at least partially due to extorting others. The Jews hated tax collectors for siding with their Roman masters instead of their fellow Jews. When Jesus told Zacchaeus that He was going to the latter’s house that day, what was the reaction of the people of Jericho? “And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner” (Luke 19:7). Note the word “all”, which suggests that Zacchaeus did not have any friends at all in Jericho! Yet the Lord reached out in love, to Zacchaeus the unloved. Zacchaeus showed by his subsequent charity that he truly repented of his sin and believed in Christ.

Christ thus demonstrated in practice what He had earlier exhorted the multitude to do in the Sermon on the Mount about loving others in Matthew 5:43-48, especially “For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye?” It is easy to love those who show love to us, and to love those who are lovely in looks or in character. It is far more difficult to love our enemies, and those who are unloved. Yes they may have certain personality quirks that you find repulsive, or do not have a very good character. They may even be rude, hot-tempered, selfish or hypocritical. Yet if we show love and compassion to these, who knows if they may be pricked by the Holy Spirit and come to realize that Christ and Christians are different from the world, and come to believe in Christ. It is so sad when even Christians physically avoid those who were formerly drug addicts but are saved by the grace of Jesus Christ and delivered from the power of drugs and the world. Thank God that at some point of time beforehand, at least one Christian did show love to these unloved drug addicts, and pointed them to Christ. Look around you, dear teen, whether in church or in school, and ask yourself who does Christ want you to reach out to today, to show love as Christ did. Don’t just retreat to your cliques and your friends.

Thought: ‘Love as I loved, give as I gave; these are the people that I’ve come to save’
Prayer: May I show love to the unloved, not just to those that I love.