THE DIVINE CATALYST

“And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying that He was gone to be with a man that is a sinner…and Jesus said unto him, ‘This day is salvation come to this house.’” Luke 9:7, 9

Jesus saw Zaccheus up in the tree, and told him to come down, and that He would abide at his house that day. Zaccheus was a principal tax-gatherer, and very rich because of his ill-gotten gains. So the people were displeased that Jesus would dine with this “sinner, “and be a guest at his house. The word “guest” used here is the Greek word ‘kataluo, “meaning: to loose down, and is the root for our English word “catalyst. “ Only one time has it been translated this way; all other cases it means to throw down, loose, etc., specifically with the thought of bringing a change, visible, but penetrating to the inner core, to deal with the nature of the thing. He who was come to bring salvation, must bring a change to this man and his household.

Catalysis, speaks of a process whereby a substance is used to accelerate a change, yet leaving that substance itself (the catalyst) unchanged.

Yes, Jesus came to be a guest in a home where the man was caught in a tumult of corruption and evil doing, and He brought a loosening, breaking the chains which bound him, transforming the whole situation by a work of sovereign grace in the heart of this individual. It was a speedy transformation, a glorious work, yet it did not have an adverse effect on our Lord. He was unchanged and unaffected by the circumstance, while changing it completely.

We read, “The goodness of God leads you to repentance” (Romans 2:4). This is sovereign intervention into a life. The evilness of the condition does not corrupt nor change God, He remains unchanged, forever pure, but He then changes the whole condition and lifts it to a much higher state in Himself. “This day is salvation come to this house. “ To what purpose? That we might become His vessels of mercy, a part of that divine catalyst used to help bring about the times of restoration and regeneration in others. Only when we are “holy as He is holy” (1 Peter 1:6), can we become a true catalyst to work a change in others, while we retain our own purity before Him.

R. Prinzing