Loading Luke 19:10…
Scripture answers this in his own words more than once. He came to seek and to save the lost, to serve and to give his life as a for many, to do the will of the Father who sent him, to bear witness to the truth, to fulfil the law and the prophets, to destroy the works of the devil, and to give life. Not one of those statements is about setting an example only, and every one of them ends up at and the empty tomb.
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God's answer first
Three sentences of stated purpose, two from Jesus and one from Paul. Read them before any explanation, and notice that each one names the people he came for.
The passage that answers this
Loading Luke 19:10…
He says it in a tax collector's house, after the crowd complains, Luke 19:7. Seek comes before save, and the object is not the willing but the lost.
Read these with it
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Spoken to disciples arguing about greatness. A is a price paid to release someone, so the sentence tells you both what he came to do and what it would cost.
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Paul quotes it as a saying already known and trusted in the churches. He then puts himself inside the sentence rather than beside it.
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Why we ask this
Christmas is familiar, and the reason behind it often is not. Many people can describe the manger and not the mission.
Some assume he came mainly to teach a better way to live, which leaves looking like an accident rather than an aim.
Others have only heard he came to die, which is true but incomplete, and it makes his teaching, healing and kingdom announcement look like filler before the real event.
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Historical context
- Written by
- Luke, writing an ordered account for Theophilus
- Written to
- a Gentile reader, in a world of Roman power and Jewish expectation
- Written because
- Jesus passing through Jericho on the way up to Jerusalem and the cross, Luke 18:31-33
Luke 19 sits after Jesus has already told his disciples plainly what will happen in Jerusalem, Luke 18:31-33. So the sentence about seeking the lost is spoken by a man walking knowingly toward execution.
Tax collectors in Roman Judea collected for an occupying power and were widely regarded as traitors, which is why the crowd's complaint in Luke 19:7 is about association, not about theology.
Israel at the time expected a deliverer, and much of that expectation was political, John 6:15. Part of what the Gospels record is Jesus refusing that role while insisting he is a of another kind, John 18:36-37.
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Verse by verse
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For links it to what has just happened, a rich man welcomed and changed. Seek is 's word, Ezekiel 34:16, and lost describes a condition rather than a mood.
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Not to be served is set against the ambition of verses 35 to 44. is a market word for the price of release, and for many echoes the servant of Isaiah 53:11-12.
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Come down from heaven states where the coming began. The purpose here is obedience, and the following verses say what that will is: that everyone who sees the Son and believes should have , John 6:40.
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He anticipates the accusation before it is made. Fulfil is the key word, and the sermon that follows shows what it looks like: not the law loosened but pressed to the heart, Matthew 5:21-22.
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He reads Isaiah 61:1-2 in his home synagogue and says the Scripture is fulfilled today, Luke 4:21. This is his own public statement of programme, and it is a list of people rather than of doctrines.
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A purpose stated in terms of conflict. Read with Hebrews 2:14-15 and Genesis 3:15, it shows his coming as a rescue operation against a real enemy, not only a message delivered.
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Set inside discourse. The next verse says the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, so the abundant life he came to give is bought at his own cost.
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What Scripture says
He came to save sinners, and said so plainly
To seek and to save that which was lost. Matthew 9:13 says he came to call sinners rather than the , and 1 Timothy 1:15 records the same saying circulating in the churches.
He came to give his life as a ransom
A for many. Isaiah 53:5-6 stands behind it, and 1 Peter 1:18-19 says you were with the precious blood of Christ. His death is presented as purpose, not misfortune.
He came to do the Father's will
Not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. John 4:34 calls it his food, and John 17:4 has him saying he finished the work given him to do.
He came to announce and bring the kingdom
of God is at hand. Luke 4:43 has him saying he must preach the good news of , because for this he was sent, and Matthew 4:23 shows preaching and healing together.
He came to fulfil what was written
Not to destroy, but to fulfil. Luke 24:44 says everything written about him in Moses, the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled, and Galatians 4:4 says he came at the fullness of time.
He came to defeat the devil and break the fear of death
He shared in flesh and blood to bring to nothing him who had the power of death and to free those held by fear of it. 1 John 3:8 says the same in one line, and Colossians 2:15 speaks of a public triumph.
He came to make God known
No one has seen God at any time; the one and only Son has declared him. John 14:9 says whoever has seen me has seen the Father, and Hebrews 1:3 calls him the radiance of his glory.
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Cross references
I came, in his own words
To seek and to save that which was lost.
To serve, and to give his life as a for many.
That I should testify to the truth.
Sent by the Father
Not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
God sent his one and only Son to be the atoning for our sins.
Sent at the fullness of time, to those under the law.
The people he named
Good news to the poor, release to captives, sight to the blind.
Not the healthy but the sick, not the but sinners.
Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened.
The enemy he came against
The promise of the offspring who will bruise the serpent's head.
That he might destroy the works of the devil.
Death disarmed and the fear of it broken.
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Common misunderstandings
He came to show us how to live.
He does teach and he is called an example, 1 Peter 2:21. But an example cannot be a , Mark 10:45, and 1 Timothy 1:15 says he came to save sinners. If the problem were only ignorance, teaching would have been enough and unnecessary.
He came only to die, so his ministry was preparation.
Luke 4:18-19 and Mark 1:38 have him stating a preaching and healing mission in his own words. Scripture presents the whole life as the work, John 17:4, with as its climax rather than as its only content.
He came to set up a political kingdom and it failed.
John 6:15 records him withdrawing when they tried to make him , and John 18:36 has him saying is not of this world. The passages closest to the accusation are the ones that answer it.
He came to start a new religion separate from the Old Testament.
Matthew 5:17 says the opposite, and Luke 24:44-47 has him explaining himself from Israel's own Scriptures. The New Testament presents him as the completion of one story, not the founder of a second.
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Things most readers miss
His mission statements are usually answers to complaints.
Luke 19:10 answers muttering about a tax collector, Matthew 9:13 answers criticism about eating with sinners, Mark 10:45 answers a fight about status. His purpose is stated where people object to it.
Seek comes before save.
Luke 19:10, and the three parables of Luke 15 all involve searching. Scripture presents God as taking the initiative before anyone asks.
He read his job description out of Isaiah.
Luke 4:16-21. He chose the passage, closed the book, and said today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Then verses 28 to 29 record his own town trying to throw him off a cliff.
Coming down is his own language.
John 6:38 and John 3:13. He speaks of the incarnation as a descent with a purpose, which is the same shape Philippians 2:6-8 later describes.
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Someone in Scripture faced this too
Scripture shows what his coming meant to specific people, which is more instructive than a summary of aims.
Zacchaeus in Jericho
What he or she went through
A wealthy chief tax collector, despised by his own people, climbed a tree because he could not see over the crowd.
How God responded
Jesus called him by name, went to his house, and answered the muttering with, came to seek and to save that which was lost.
What we learn
The clearest statement of why he came is given as an explanation of a meal with a man everyone else had written off. Zacchaeus's restitution follows the welcome; it does not earn it.
Simeon in the temple
What he or she went through
An old man waiting for the consolation of Israel was shown the child and took him in his arms.
How God responded
My eyes have seen your , a light for revelation to the nations, and the glory of your people Israel. Then he told Mary a sword would pierce her own soul.
What we learn
The first recorded reaction to his purpose holds joy and cost together. for the nations and a sword through a mother's heart are in the same speech.
Pilate in the judgement hall
What he or she went through
A Roman governor trying to work out whether the prisoner was a political threat.
How God responded
For this reason I have been born, and for this reason I have come into the world, that I should testify to the truth. Pilate answered, What is truth.
What we learn
Jesus states his purpose to the man about to sentence him, and does it in the language of witness rather than of escape. The question Pilate asks is left unanswered in the text.
How it points to Christ
The one who came to bear witness to the truth is condemned by a man who cannot define it. Scripture lets that stand without comment.
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Christ and this question
The one who came is coming back
Scripture never lets his first coming stand alone. Hebrews 9:28 says Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many, and will appear a second time to those who are eagerly waiting.
Acts 1:11 has the promise given as the disciples watch him go: this Jesus will come back in the same way as you saw him going. The purpose of the first coming is completed by the second.
That is why the New Testament ties his mission to a hope rather than to a memory. Titus 2:11-13 puts them together: the appeared, and we now look for the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
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What to do with this
Collect the I came sentences yourself
Read Luke 19:10, Mark 10:45, John 6:38, John 10:10, John 12:46, John 18:37 and Matthew 5:17. Write each one out. Seeing them together answers the question better than any summary.
Read Luke 4:16-30 as his opening statement
Notice which words of Isaiah he reads, where he stops, and what happens when he applies it to himself. It sets the terms for everything that follows.
Put yourself in the sentence, as Paul did
1 Timothy 1:15. Paul does not say he came to save sinners in general. He says of whom I am chief. Say the sentence with your own name in it and see whether you can.
Move on to the cross and the resurrection
Why he came leads directly to why he had to die and why he rose. Take those two questions next rather than stopping at the purpose stated.
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Study the question further
Why did Jesus have to come as a human being at all?
Scripture gives reasons: to represent us truly, to die as one of us, and to be a who can sympathise. A rescue from outside our nature would not have touched our situation.
Hebrews 2:14-17
He shared flesh and blood so that he could die and become a merciful high priest.
Hebrews 4:15
Tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin.
Romans 5:18-19
One man's obedience answering one man's disobedience.
Why did he come when he did?
Scripture calls it the fullness of time and says the promise had been prepared for. It does not give a list of political or cultural reasons, so we should not present one as though it did.
Galatians 4:4
When the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son.
Mark 1:15
The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.
Romans 5:6
At the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
Did Jesus come only for Israel or for everyone?
He was sent first to Israel and said so, and the same Scriptures speak from the beginning of blessing reaching all nations through him. Both are held, in order.
First to Israel
Sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Matthew 15:24.
Always for the nations
A light for revelation to the nations, Luke 2:32, promised in Genesis 12:3.
Sent out to all
Make disciples of all nations, Matthew 28:19, and Acts 1:8.
If he came to save, why do people still perish?
Scripture holds two things together: God's genuine that people turn and live, and the reality that his coming is met with unbelief as well as faith. It states both without resolving them into a formula.
John 3:17-19
He came not to judge but to save, and yet people loved darkness.
Ezekiel 33:11
I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; turn and live.
2 Peter 3:9
Patient, not wishing that any should perish.
What did his coming actually accomplish?
Scripture names concrete results: sin dealt with, the enemy disarmed, access to God opened, and life given. These are stated as done rather than as hoped for.
Hebrews 9:26
Once at the end of the ages, to put away sin by his sacrifice.
Colossians 2:13-15
The debt cancelled and the powers disarmed.
Ephesians 2:18
Through him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
How to apply this today
- Which of his stated purposes had I never noticed him saying?
- Do I think of his coming mainly as an example, or as a rescue?
Father, thank you that your Son came on purpose, and that he said why. Let me receive him as he came, as Savior and Lord.
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Reflection
- Read Luke 19:1-10. What does Jesus do before he explains why he came, and why does the order matter?
- Read Luke 4:16-21. Which words of Isaiah does he apply to himself, and who is named in them?
- Read Mark 10:35-45. What were the disciples arguing about, and how does his answer redefine greatness?
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Prayer
Father, your Son did not arrive by accident, and he told us why he came. Thank you for saying it so plainly.
I am one of the lost he came to seek. I am not going to pretend otherwise in front of you.
Lord Jesus, you came to serve and to give your life as a . Take my life into that purpose, and teach me to live for it. Amen.
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Further reading
Luke 19:1-10
The clearest single statement of why he came, and the meal behind it.
Luke 4:16-30
His own opening statement of mission, and the reaction to it.
Mark 10:32-45
The saying in the middle of an argument about greatness.
Hebrews 2:9-18
Why the Son had to share our flesh and blood.
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Explore the passage
These are questions the text can actually answer. Take one, go back to the passage with it, and read until Scripture answers rather than until you have an explanation you like. Each question names where this study, or another passage, does the answering.
What this reveals about God
Start here, because every passage of Scripture is first about God before it is about us. Read for what He does, what He says, and what He is called.
What does these passages teach about God?
Underline every verb God is the subject of. What He does tells you who He is.
What does these passages reveal about God's character?
Look for the words the text itself uses of Him: holy, merciful, faithful, jealous, patient. Take the text's own vocabulary rather than your own.
What this reveals about us
Scripture is honest about people. Read for what it says of human need, human failure, and the kind of response it calls for.
What does these passages teach about humanity?
Watch what the people in the text want, fear, and trust. Scripture rarely flatters them.
What does these passages reveal about faith?
Faith in Scripture is always faith in someone, about something specific. Ask what exactly is being believed here, and on what word.
Where this arrives in Christ
Jesus said the Scriptures testify of Him. Follow the line the Bible itself draws rather than inventing one.
What does these passages reveal about Jesus Christ?
Look for what the New Testament does with this text. A connection Scripture makes is a connection you can stand on.
What does these passages reveal about salvation?
Ask who does the saving, who is saved, from what, and by what means. Let the text answer each part.
The world behind the words
The first readers knew things we have to learn. Recovering what they knew is study, not speculation.
How would the original audience have understood these passages?
Ask what they had already been told, what they were living through, and what this would have cost them to believe.
What historical or cultural background helps explain these passages?
Look at the work, the worship, the law and the customs the text assumes you already understand.
How this connects to the rest of Scripture
Scripture is its own best commentary. The clearest answers usually come from another passage rather than from a scholar.
Which Old and New Testament passages help explain these passages?
Prefer passages that quote or clearly echo this text. Those links are the Bible's own, not ours.
What biblical themes are developed in these passages, and where do they begin?
Trace one theme backwards to where Scripture first raises it, then forwards to where it lands.
What this asks of you
Application is the last step, never the first, and it must come out of the passage rather than out of general advice.
What does these passages teach believers to do today?
Say it as one sentence you could obey this week, and be able to point at the verse it came from.
Where faithful readers differ
Some questions here are genuinely open. Where Bible believing Christians read this differently, the readings are set out with the passages behind each one, and what Scripture states plainly is kept separate from what is interpretation.
Which parts of these passages does Scripture state plainly, and which parts are interpretation?
Write two lists. Anything you cannot put in the first list, hold loosely and say so when you teach it.
Questions Audela will not answer
Where Scripture does not answer a question, Audela says so plainly rather than filling the silence. An honest “the Bible does not tell us” is more faithful than a confident guess, and it keeps the reader’s trust in God’s Word rather than in our reasoning.
The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever.
- Ask instead: What does the passage say God did, and what does that reveal about His character?
- Ask instead: What has God told us about His purpose here, in this text or elsewhere in Scripture?
- Ask instead: What does Scripture say about how God acts, and where does it say it?
- Ask instead: What happened, and what does the rest of Scripture make of it?
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Study tools
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Where this leads
A question is a doorway, not a destination. Here is where this one leads if you want to keep reading rather than stop at an answer.
Topic hub
Primary study
Romans 8: No Condemnation, No Separation
Romans 8:3-4 states his coming as a mission with an aim: God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.
Supporting studies
Luke 4:16-30
Read his own statement of what he was sent to do.
Mark 10:32-45
Read the ransom saying in its argument.
Hebrews 2:9-18
Read why he had to become one of us.
Deep chapter studies
Romans 8: No Condemnation, No Defeat, No Separation
The Son sent for sin, and what that secured.
John 15: The Vine, the Branches, and the Friends of God
The life he came to give, described in his own words.