Seeking Purpose

Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus, who He was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature. So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, "Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house." So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully. But when they saw it, they all complained, saying, "He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner." (Luke 19:1–7)

When you grasp why Jesus came, you discover why you are exactly where you are.

A Culture Starving for Meaning

Happy new year. As we begin this new year, we're starting a short series on an important topic: purpose. I believe that knowing and having a purpose is essential if we are to live this life in a meaningful way. God our Creator made us for a purpose, and He intends that we would experience life the way He designed it. But I don't think we can experience it that way without answering some very important questions.

Everyone you interact with—in your neighborhood, at work, at school—has a worldview, a framework by which they see the world. And every philosophy needs to answer a series of important questions if it's going to hold up a person's life. There are about five: identity (who we are), origin (where we came from), destiny (where we are going), purpose (what we are here for), and morality (how we should live). We need strong answers to these if we're going to find a transcendent meaning in this life.

These answers are found in the Scriptures. Normally we go book by book through the Bible, but from time to time we pause to look at one of these questions directly. We did that in 2015 with a series in Ephesians called Identity. Now we're drilling down into purpose, because we live in a time when people are deeply confused about meaning. That confusion is evidenced by the rise in prescription drug use and suicide—things I don't think are disconnected from the questions of purpose and meaning.

A Collective Existential Crisis

Some have called what our culture is experiencing a collective existential crisis. Existentialism has to do with why we exist. It's as if our whole nation is having a kind of midlife crisis, where people look back at the time that's passed and forward at the time that remains and ask, "What is it all about? I don't feel like I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing."

Different voices blame different causes—September 11th, the election and reelection of George W. Bush, the economic collapse of 2008, the elections of Barack Obama, global warming, the 2016 election. People point to all kinds of sources. But I think deeper than all of those things are the issues of meaning and purpose. I was listening recently to one man, not a Christian, who said life is difficult, rife with suffering, contaminated by malevolence, and you need a sustaining meaning to avoid bitterness—a sustaining purpose, or you enter what some call existential depression.

So it isn't only those who consider theology who wrestle with meaning; it's also people who have no framework for the existence of God. They ask where to turn for sustaining purpose, and there are many opinions. Sam Harris, a popular atheist, is convinced the best path to meaning is through meditation and even psychedelics. You're going to see a push in our culture to legalize and declassify those substances, because some say that's where meaning will be found. People are starving for meaning, and they're told they must create their own—which is extremely difficult, and most don't seem to be doing it well.

The Purpose of Jesus Frames Our Purpose

That leads to the proposition of this series: the purpose of Jesus helps us frame and understand our purpose more meaningfully. The great declaration of the Christian faith is that Jesus is God. As God, He came into the world—the Incarnation—and He spoke about His purpose for coming. If that is God's purpose for Jesus entering the world, it has implications for our lives.

Why Jesus came begins to answer the questions we wrestle with: Why do I live where I live? Why am I in this job, this school, this neighborhood, this family? We get a more meaningful answer when we understand why Jesus came. So we're looking at His purpose statements in the Gospels—I've found about thirteen so far where Jesus says, "I have come for this purpose."

Last week we saw the first in Mark 10:45:

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.

In typical Jewish fashion, Jesus states it both negatively and positively. He did not come to be served, but to serve—and that service is manifested by giving His life as a ransom, a payment, for many. Jesus purposed to serve sacrificially.

Why Serve When It's Not Our Nature?

If Jesus lived with a self-sacrificial purpose and we should adopt it, then whatever place, job, family, or trial we find ourselves in, we should begin to live as Jesus did. But immediately someone asks, "Why should I serve others sacrificially? Why not serve myself?"

It is our natural tendency to be self-focused. If you've ever had a two-year-old, you know children are not born unselfish—we are born selfish. We tend to mask it in socially acceptable ways, but at the core, by nature, we are self-focused. Our entire culture reinforces it: "Have it your way." The ethos of America in 2019—and most of the Western world—is that it's all about you, and because the West has so much money and power, we export that thought everywhere.

Generally, people use their gifts, talents, training, and education to gain ascendancy, to get to the top of whatever field they're in. Our culture solidifies into silos with hierarchical, pyramid-shaped structures—wide at the base, narrow at the top. Nietzsche said it's all about power and dominance; in a meritocracy, others rise by competence. Either way, we're told that reaching the top means power and greatness, and there is a real desire in the human heart for power and greatness, as we saw with the disciples in Mark 10. Maybe Nietzsche was right that the human race is geared toward a will to power.

Here's the interesting thing: wherever we sit in that stack, we tend to look at those above us with disdain, jealousy, and envy. And we assume they got there by some corrupt means—that they did something wrong to reach the top. That's how we think, and that is exactly the dynamic in the story before us.

Zacchaeus: A Despised Man in a Tree

You may know the children's song—"Zacchaeus was a wee little man." This 2,000-year-old story pictures a culture not much different from ours: a hierarchy with someone higher up who is despised, disliked, and assumed to have gotten there through corruption.

Jesus is passing through Jericho on His way from Galilee down to Jerusalem for the Passover, for the last time before His crucifixion. This story follows immediately after Mark 10, where the disciples were talking about greatness. Jericho was the last major stop before the climb up into Judea.

Then we meet Zacchaeus—a chief tax collector, and rich. In American terms, that sounds like the top of the hierarchy. But in first-century Jewish culture, he would have been the most despised. They lumped tax collectors in with sinners and harlots. They viewed them as treacherous, because they collected taxes for the occupying Roman Empire and kept whatever they could collect above Rome's quota. People assumed: you're rich, you're a tax collector, you got there dishonestly.

Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus but couldn't because of the crowd and his short stature. The average man in Israel at that time stood about five foot six—Jesus Himself was probably about five foot six, a Jewish man in the Middle East, not a tall, flowing-haired figure. So Zacchaeus was small, but industrious. He ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree. And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him—probably the first time someone had truly looked up and seen Zacchaeus—and called him by name: "Make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house."

Jesus Saw Those Looked Down Upon

The crowd was indignant: "He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner." As a general rule, because of our fallen nature, those lower in the hierarchy despise those above them and assume they got there immorally. This isn't new. It was the same 2,000 years ago. Jesus saw those overlooked and looked down upon because He purposed to do so. Everyone else despised the little man; Jesus sought him out.

Then Zacchaeus stood and said:

Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold. (Luke 19:8)

The common interpretation is that this is Zacchaeus's public repentance—promising from this day forward to give to the poor and restore what he's taken. But that is the wrong interpretation. The Greek is clear: the verbs are in the present active indicative, describing continuous, ongoing action. I called my friend Justin Alford, a Greek scholar, this week to confirm it. Zacchaeus is saying, "This is how I already live."

So when it says Zacchaeus "stood," he's taking a self-justifying pose: "Listen, all of you who don't like me—I give half my goods to the poor. Set your giving record against mine. And if I've ever taken anything unethically, I restore it fourfold, more than the law requires." We may dislike him because he's a rich tax collector, but by his own accounting he was a good man.

Come to Seek and to Save the Lost

And yet Jesus says:

Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:9–10)

There is Jesus's second purpose statement: Jesus came seeking to save the lost and despised. Notice what's between the lines. The crowd, lower in privilege, assumed Zacchaeus was corrupt, and by doing so set themselves up as better in goodness and morality. We do the same: "They may be higher than me in power and privilege, but I'm higher than them in goodness." It makes us feel better, but it isn't a good thing.

Zacchaeus, for his part, considered himself a good man by his good works. We do that too—"I'm better than that person because I do this." Yet in spite of Zacchaeus's good works, Jesus said salvation came to his house not because of his generosity or ethics, but because the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. There are a lot of lost people in this story. All the people looking down on Zacchaeus were lost. Zacchaeus, with all his good works and moral character, was lost. And Jesus came for the lost.

Humanity has not changed much in thousands of years. We have iPhones and cars and running water; they had chariots and sanitation problems. But at our core we are the same. We still view hierarchies the same way; we still deconstruct those above us to feel better about ourselves; and we are still lost. Men like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates have pledged billions to relieve suffering and hunger—amazing, good things—but none of those billions make them right or less lost before God. The wonderful thing is that Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost.

Living on Purpose Where God Placed You

How does this help us frame our purpose? There are despised, overlooked, lost people all around us—at work, at school, in your neighborhood, on the basketball court, on the golf course. At least a couple times a year I talk with people wrestling with their place in life. "You don't understand—I'm just a stay-at-home mom, I'm just a teacher, I'm just a cop, I'm just a whatever. I wish my job had more meaning. I wish I were serving Jesus." I want you to understand that God has placed you where you are on purpose, to seek and save the lost. The purpose of Jesus will change the way you see what you do, and that position that doesn't feel meaningful will become far more meaningful.

How? Look at the other purpose statements. In John 12:46 Jesus said, "I have come as a light into the world." Is the place you work or study a dark place? God placed you there to fulfill the same purpose Jesus came to fulfill. In John 18:37 Jesus said, "I have come to bear witness to the truth." Are there people in your sphere believing and espousing lies? Jesus placed you there to bear witness to the truth. In Mark 1:38 He said, "Let us go... that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come." He came to preach the good news, and He's placed you where you are to bring light and truth.

Purpose to seek out those who are lost and despised—that is what Jesus would do, and what He has called you to do in your place. I've dedicated my life to being a bearer of truth and a preacher of good news, a light in a dark place. But I don't get to do that unless you are a light in a dark place, because I'm with church people all the time. God has scattered you throughout this county to be a light, to bear witness, to proclaim the good news.

It's Hard, but It's Meaningful

Is it easy? No, it's hard. John the Baptist was killed for it; Jesus was killed for it. I don't think that's going to happen to you, but it's challenging—and that's what God has called us to. My wife works in the ICU at Scripps in Encinitas, and she comes home regularly sharing how she was able to speak with a doctor or a group of co-workers. She's being a light in a dark place, ministering to patients, families, and colleagues. Sometimes she comes home and says, "I don't think I said it the right way." My thought is, "Yes, but you said it." You spoke; you were a light, a bearer of truth, because that's what Jesus would do—and it makes the work meaningful.

When we grasp the purpose of Jesus and adopt it, whatever place God has put us in becomes more meaningful. There is nothing more meaningful than bringing people who are far from God back into connection with God—an endeavor with eternal consequence. So much of what we do feels unmeaningful because it's temporary; even saving for retirement is temporary. If your entire life is geared toward a nice 401(k), it won't satisfy. But if you invest your life into eternity—the bank of eternal securities—it will yield eternal dividends. That is where true and great meaning is found.

Closing Prayer

Jesus, we see clearly Your purpose, articulated by You. You came not to be served but to serve, and to give Your life sacrificially as a ransom, a payment, for many. You came to seek and to save that which was lost. You came as a light into the dark place, to bear witness to the truth, to preach the gospel. I pray that in whatever place You've placed any of us here today, we would begin to see that we are placed there on purpose, by You, for Your purpose—that we would be a light to those in darkness, darkness of corruption and ethical failure, or darkness of trial and difficulty and malevolence. Lord, we have the truth, and we get to bear witness to it. Give us boldness to say it even when we feel fear and anxiety. Give us the words. And Lord, may we find true meaning in Your purpose, living life on purpose. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all those in agreement said, Amen.