April 1, 2024

You never know when Jesus might show up. That was what I thought about when I read our passage for today. It’s just a descriptive sentence. It’s simply Luke letting us know where Jesus was and what He was doing. But it was so much more than that. It was a Holy Visitation. As Jesus came through Jericho, He would completely alter the world of a tax collector named Zacchaeus. He would move on to Jerusalem for an event that would be remembered through history as “the triumphal entry.” You see, wherever Jesus went, things happened. People were healed. People were changed. Miracles took place. Jesus was the power and presence of God. So when Jesus visited, God moved.
It’s the same today. I remember one Sunday night several years ago when we took a moment to allow for some “popcorn testimonies.” That’s where we invite people to stand up and share a short testimony of something that God did for them or an answer to prayer. That “short” testimony time turned into an hour of sharing and praising God. All because Jesus came by.
I remember one summer at camp when I was in high school. At an evening service, a guy sang the song, “Have You Had a Gethsemane?” About halfway through the song, someone got up and went to the altar and began to weep and pray. Then another person went forward. Then another and another and another. There was no preaching that night, and yet there were more people who came forward for healing and salvation than I think I’d ever seen before. How do you explain something like that? Jesus came by.
Let’s make that our prayer this week. “Lord, we need a visitation.” Our families need healing. We have friends who need deliverance. There are people all around us who need salvation. We need an outbreak of the Spirit of God. We need what only Jesus can bring. We need a visitation. That’s God’s Word for you today.