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London, England, the Bloomsbury District, tenth floor of the old Ivanhoe Hotel, autumn, 1971. I was a young exchange student studying history, English literature, and such. Each morning as I looked out my window overlooking an alley, I noticed a dimly lit room in the apartment building opposite me. The windows were all sooted up. One pane was broken. And to keep the cold out someone had wedged a picture in the sash. Best I could see, it was the photograph of a man, very faded. Each day for three months I noticed that picture.

Often I still catch myself wondering about the man in the photograph. Who was he? Why did he live? And what circumstances caused his photo to be used as a temporary windowpane?

Do you ever feel like that? Out of place? Wasted? Fading away? Shoved into some ignominious hole?

So many in our world are like that: mental patients, refugees, prisoners, wards of a rest home, a business executive shoved aside in some merger.

Sociologists call us "the throwaway generation." We use and casually toss away bottles, cans, pens, razors, and ... people. Divorce ... abortions ... euthanasia ...

I was decorating the evergreen tree in my front yard one cold December day when a rattle-trap car bumped to a stop at my curb. Out comes a familiar looking face -- Bobby -- a former local college football star, big as a bear. In 1979 he was the best linebacker around.

"How are you?" I inquired.

And out of his mouth came a tale of woe. Unemployed. Mental illness. A lonely single. Nothing better to do than chain smoke and glue his days together with alcohol. Oh, the hurt! Oh, the wasted years! Oh, the loneliness! Bobby's question still haunts me. "What does your Book say about ruins like me? Is there any word from God?"

Yes, Bobby, there most certainly is.

Jesus said, "The Son of man came to seek and to save the lost" (Luke 19:10).

He Comes
If one visits the Natural Bridge of Virginia, one may see where George Washington, as a young surveyor, scratched his initials on the cliff wall. Indeed, George Washington was here!

Ah, but God Almighty was and is and is evermore here among us!

Deism is the belief in an absentee god. The Lord wound up creation like a clock and left it ticking in space. But he has walked away from it. We are abandoned. Yet, this is not what scripture teaches. Hear it? "The Son of man came ..."

He still comes ...

I made a tour of Israel once. I learned that Jesus, over his 33-year earthly ministry, traveled over 2,000 miles on foot. He was in Lebanon, in Egypt, and all over Israel. Why, every village, no matter how obscure, seemed to have had a visit by our Lord.

He came. And he still comes. Even unto you, Bobby. And to you and you and you.

He Seeks
"The Son of man came to seek ..."

In the cartoon, Dennis the Menace, young Dennis confides in pal Joey, "Don't ever play hide-and-seek with Mr. Wilson. You hide, but he doesn't seek!" Ah, but Christ seeks! In tiny villages Jesus walked. By the sea, at tax booths, by sick beds he sought people. Even on the cross he sought the soul of a dying thief.

And still today Jesus seeks the alcoholic, the infirm, the busy, the sinful. Even lonely tenth floor apartment dwellers peeking out from behind broken windows stuffed with faded photographs. "The Son of man came ... to seek ..."

To Seek The Lost
Jesus said, "The Son of man came ... to seek ... the lost."

Isaiah foretold Jesus' coming. He said of Messiah, "A bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench." There are two beautiful pictures here of what it means to be human and sinful and lost.

"A bruised reed" is a small musical instrument played by shepherds. It's made of wood, perhaps bamboo, and is played like a flute by rustics to pass the time on lonely hillsides as they manage their sheep. Such a "reed" is delicate. It can be dropped, sat upon, stepped on. Most musicians, upon breaking their flute, won't attempt to fix it. They simply throw it away. A new reed can be bought for pennies.

We fragile people can make music, too. But how often we become bruised. And straightaway we are shoved aside. Forgotten. Unwanted.

Isaiah says it's not so with Christ. He, rather, takes great pains to fix us, to restore us so we can sing his praises once more!

The second picture is of a "dimly burning lamp." You know, a lamp that offers more smoke than light. It fills the room with acrid smoke. It irritates the eyes. It is so aggravating you want to snuff it out!

Not Jesus. Even if we are an aggravation, more smoke than fire, more trouble than we're worth, he adds oil and trims our wick to restore our witness.

In short, when we're lost, he comes seeking. We're not castaways. He restores the light and music in our souls.

To Save
Now for the most beautiful of all Christ's promises. "The Son of man came to seek and to save the lost."

In the Greek "to save" means "to bring health." "The Son of man came to seek and to bring health to the lost."

In Christ's day Jesus was known as "Joshua bar Joseph." This was his Jewish or Hebrew name. How in the world did we get "Jesus Christ" out of that?

"Joshua" means "savior or health-giver." It was translated to the Greek language, "Jesus," for New Testament purposes.

"Bar Joseph" means "son of Joseph." It was dropped for the title "Messiah" in Hebrew, which translates in Greek to "Christ," "The Chosen One, the Anointed One."

Hence, Jesus Christ, the one God chose to bring health to the world.

This health God brings is in relationships with God. With people. With self. With creation. God's health is epitomized by love. You'll find the best description of it in the great commandment found in Mark 12:29-31. " 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' " Such becomes a man or woman, boy or girl, who relates to Jesus.

So, I ask you, have you received this salvation? Are you discovering this health in your relationships?

Conclusion
In the mid-1960s color television came to West Germany. Radio, television, and the news media all heralded the coming of color. But on the announced evening, thousands of black and white television viewers called to complain they were still only seeing black and white. The broadcasting station had to explain patiently that the problem was with their reception. Unless they purchased a color receiver, they couldn't tune in.

And you? What of you and me? God is broadcasting Christmas live and in living color. Are you receiving it in Jesus?