Chase

It seems God puts a lot of energy into chasing after us. Since we turned a moral choice into a consumer one God has been after us, pursuing us, chasing us down, so that he can restore us to right standing with him. It started in the garden, when, after we ate forbidden fruit, God came looking for us. He found us hidden in the bushes, trying to conceal our newly discovered shame. It continued when Jesus came to live among us, to chase us into his kingdom.

Webster defined chase as “pursuit with the ardent desire to obtain; earnest seeking.” The verb is equally active and passionate: “to drive, urge, press forward with vehemence; pursue with the purpose of taking.” That is exactly what Jesus is doing, and we are the objects of the chase.

The concept is lost on the Pharisees, both of Jesus’ time and ours. Pharisees boast the attainment of self-righteousness and look down their noses at those who haven’t made it. In Jesus’ time they made clear distinctions between themselves and those whom they labeled “sinners.” They couldn’t understand why Jesus would want to keep company with “sinners.”

When Jesus invited Matthew into discipleship Matthew threw a party and invited his tax collector friends to meet the new rabbi. Pharisees complained. “Why do you eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus responded, “Those who are well don’t need the physician. Those who are sick do.”

Later, as Jesus passed through Perea en route to Jerusalem he again spent time with the common folk. And again Pharisees criticized him. “This man receives sinners, and eats with them!”

By this time Jesus could take no more of the self-righteous arrogance of the Pharisees. He unloaded on them with a series of parables that left no doubt what he thought of them. He berated their hypocrisy and decried their disloyalty. He revealed their greed and pride. But with the first two Jesus made it clear God is all about chasing after the “sinners” they loved to look down upon.

First story. A shepherd (low-life sinner, according to the Pharisees) has one hundred sheep. One goes missing. He leaves the 99, presumably with fellow low-life sinning shepherds, to chase after the one that is lost. Because he is regarded a low-life sinner, he knows he must recover that sheep or be accused of stealing it. He searches high and low, and when he finds the sheep he returns to the sheepcote. He calls friends together and they celebrate the recovery of the one that was lost. His friends know all too well how important that one sheep is. The kingdom is like that, Jesus said.

Second story. A woman (low-class peasant woman, not too important to Pharisaical eyes) has a cherished ketuba, or dowry, worth ten days wages for the average day laborer. In our money at current minimum wage it amounts to just under $600. That money is all she truly owns and is intended to be her life insurance policy if her husband dies. She loses one of those treasured coins and turns the house upside-down in the chase to recover it. The extra housework pays off, and she calls her friends to celebrate. Her friends know all too well how important that coin is. The kingdom is like that, Jesus said.

In each case the seeker experienced loss of something important and saw the need to drop everything to chase, that is, search diligently for the lost item. Each did not rest until the lost item was recovered, and each rejoiced in celebration in the recovery of something important and precious. The kingdom is like that, Jesus said.

God’s heartfelt loss is relationship with us. The tragedy of sin is broken relationship, not broken law, and God in his mercy desperately wants to repair that. So he chases us down to offer the means of restoration.

The psalmist was aware of the chase. “Where can I go from your Spirit,” he asks. “Where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.” You can’t get away from God’s chase.

The chase is Jesus Christ himself through what we call the incarnation. God comes to us in human form, the second Adam. Paul the apostle, describing his pursuit of the higher calling in Christ, wrote “I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me” (Philippians 3:12, emphasis added). Jesus had chased Paul, and caught up with him on the Damascus road. His life was forever changed.

When Jesus catches up to us our lives are forever changed. Over time grace repairs the broken image on the inside, gradually restoring us to the image of God intended from the beginning. And as that happens all of heaven celebrates, because cherished relationship was restored and renewed.

Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the saving knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your name. Amen. (BCP)