“And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” (Luke 19:5-7)
What if the love of Jesus Christ for you is so massive that you could go on climbing trees your whole life, and he would keep telling you to come down and have dinner with him? What if you can't sin your way out of the love of God? What if he's patient?
Something that happens as we begin to walk with Jesus for any amount of time is that we begin to use our track record as a way of excluding ourselves from the grace of God. We say things like, “I should know better by now.” All of a sudden, the grace of God begins to seem smaller, and our sins begin to seem bigger. We feel like we’re skating on thin ice. Dear friend, what is the glory of Christ but that he associates with sinners? In the story of Zacchaeus, the only people who can't get in on this are those who don't want to associate with sinners. Will you be a sinner? Then you can have Christ, and you will glorify him all the more by just receiving him as the sinner that you are. Will he change you? Yes, he'll mess with you in all kinds of ways, but all of that is downstream from locking eyes with the real Jesus and joyfully receiving his grace.
The Massive Love of Jesus