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Big Idea: Loving someone begins with knowing their name.
Prayer: “Give us the courage to love others, to know their stories, to learn their names.”

Introduction
This week we begin a new 3-week series called “Love Has a Name” based on a book by Adam Weber. Learning a name is often the first step to beginning a new friendship or relationship. It is the entry point into someone’s life – a kind of doorway. And from that initial point, a relationship can grow. You can see how, “Love starts with a name.”

A name represents a person’s story…
And the best news? Jesus knows your name, He knows your story, and He loves you.

Luke 19:1-10 (Jesus and Zacchaeus)
When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him,
“Zacchaeus,
come down immediately.
I must stay
at your house
today” (19:5)

• Jesus Knows Our Name
• Zacchaeus was someone everybody loved to hate. He worked for the “enemy.” He got rich off his own people (the Jews), and by his very vocation (being a Tax Collector for the Romans) showed that he didn’t care for YHWH or his people.
• Added to that Luke tells us he was a “chief tax collector,” which meant he was doing a really good job for his Roman superiors, by being ruthlessly effective against his own people. How they must have hated him.
• There is another descriptor that Luke mentions – he was short. It is almost certain that that would have added to the contempt that his fellow Jews had for him! His physical stature didn’t allow him to even see this person that the sick, the poor, the marginalized were talking so much about. And so, being short he had to climb a tree to see Jesus. He definitely wanted to see him.
• Jesus called out to Zacchaeus by name while he was in that tree. It was as if with all the people pressing around him, Jesus saw the one person that everyone else wanted to not see.
• Jesus calls to each of us my name as well. He knows my name – even if I think no one else knows or wants to know.
• How many individuals around me do I know by name? Especially the ones I want to not see, not know?
• Just as he saw Zacchaeus, he sees each of us. Doesn’t matter who we are, what we’ve done, where we’ve been – he sees us.
• Jesus’ encounter with each person was with a purpose: “to seek…the lost” (v.10). [It is obvious though that he was never condescending in his seeking, it was always in love.]
• How much do we intentionally seek “the lost” – beginning with their name?
• Do we want to know their name, without any “agenda,” just because Jesus does?
• Jesus Changes Our Story
• Jesus begins with a name, but it doesn’t end there. He genuinely desired to be in Zacchaeus’ story which is indicated by the “at your house.”
• There was a sense of urgency implied by the “…come down immediately… today”
• There was also a feeling of necessity shown by the “I must stay”
• And so Jesus goes to his home because Zacchaeus did exactly that – he came down from the tree, invited Jesus to his home gladly and threw a party with all his tax collector friends! And Jesus stayed and partied with them. [Note: Jesus’ religious peers showed their disapproval in no uncertain terms!]
• At the party, Zacchaeus proclaims something astounding – he shows a change of heart, values, purpose.
• He shows generosity by first actually “seeing” the poor, and promising to give half his wealth to them.
• He takes justice to heart and “sees” those he has defrauded, and with the remaining half of his wealth he promises to doubly restore those that he had cheated through his tax collection (the Law required him return 2x, he promised 4x).
• Love, whose name is Jesus, had given him a new story. Just as Love gives each of us a new story. Please note: There is no record here of Jesus preaching to Zacchaeus, rebuking him, asking him to “repent”]
• Individual stories that change begin with love – love that begins with a name
• Love’s purpose was more than just “to seek the lost,” it was also “to save the lost.”
• Only the love of Jesus can change our stories – from seeking to saving the lost. But that love begins with seeing the person, letting them know that they are seen, known, loved. And it begins with that person’s name.
• It happened with me. It can happen through me – when knowing a name begins a new story.

There’s no telling what God can do through each of us beginning with just the nam

Action Steps:

• Love begins with a name. so…Seek to know at least one person by name – someone whose name you did not know. Then seek to listen to their story. Maybe it will be over coffee, maybe over breakfast or dinner, because love takes time.
• After leaving that person, pray for him/her. You do the seeking, let Jesus do the saving! Then let Jesus grow that relationship as he wants to.