Thurs. July 17th :: Lk.19 :: The House Guest

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, 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."

Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this
man, too, is a son of Abraham.

(Luke 19:8-9)
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In the church it is common to identify ‘salvation’ with a prayer that we prayed at one point or another. We prayed this prayer and we ‘got saved’. And that’s wonderfully true.

Yet for some reason that phrase has always seemed a bit strange to me. “I GOT saved.” It’s not that it’s incorrect; it’s just that the only other thing we refer to that way are really nasty diseases. For instance: in seminary I ‘GOT mono’ (Not from kissing anyone though… Seminary students are rarely that fortunate). But I digress...

All that stuff aside, I love the way Jesus talks about salvation in this passage.

For Zacchaeus salvation wasn’t just something that happened inwardly. It wasn't just a change of eternal destination. It was a change of lifestyle. For Zacchaeus, his encounter with Jesus had outward ramifications. He started giving to the poor and setting things right with his neighbors. And it was then that Jesus said it: ‘Today salvation has come to this house’.

In this passage Jesus speaks of God’s salvation not as a virus, but as a long awaited HOUSE GUEST. Salvation showed up for dinner and began to set Zacchaeus’ home in order.

So here’s what I’m thinking about today:
What would it look like for salvation come to my house? What about yours?