Luke 19:10

Jesus is summing up His entire mission: He came on purpose to search out and rescue people who are spiritually lost. He says this just after dining with Zacchaeus, a despised tax collector whom the crowd had written off as a sinner. Zacchaeus had climbed a tree merely to glimpse Jesus, and Jesus called him by name, went to his house, and watched a transformed man pledge to repay and give generously.

"Son of man" is Jesus' favored title for Himself, drawn from prophetic Scripture, signaling His God-given mission. The two verbs "seek" and "save" describe both initiative and outcome: He does not wait passively for the lost to find their way, He goes after them, and He brings rescue. "That which was lost" gathers up the whole thread of Luke 15 -- the lost sheep, coin, and son -- and applies it to a real man the religious crowd considered beyond hope. The verse stands as a key that unlocks the Gospel's heart: the very people others exclude are the ones Jesus deliberately pursues. For the reader, this is both comfort and commission -- comfort that no one is too far gone to be sought, and a model of the seeking love that marks Jesus' followers.