One of the qualities I love about the story of Zaccheus is that Christ was not the only person seeking to have a meeting. Zaccheus was willing to do whatever it took to see Jesus. This is why I believe that even though there were crowds of people along the road, Jesus only spoke to Zaccheus and then went to his house; NO……!! In their day, that would be like a Jew inviting Hitler to dinner. In the Jewish people’s minds, Zaccheus was the worse of human beings that could ever live on the earth, with whom Jesus should have nothing to do with.
Please understand that Christ addressed the sin but did not eliminate the sinner. We must address the sin. The scripture puts it this way; “When I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. Yet if you have warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered yourself.” (Ezekiel 3:18-19; NASU) The word wicked may have caused some of you to turn this off. The Word of God is holy; living outside of it willfully is to live wicked. He is not condemning the person; He is trying to deliver them from sin while calling a spade a spade.
The issue is that Zaccheus and the person described in Ezekiel must desire change before the work of the Holy Spirit makes a difference in their lives. This is sometimes where the rubber hits the road. What I mean is we must love our brothers and sisters, but also remember it is the Holy Spirit that convicts and brings about change (John 16:7-11). Our responsibility is live and teach the message and patiently grow together (John 15:1-13). This process begins with an acceptance of God’s Word, like in the case of Zaccheus, so that the truth, which is empowered by the Holy Spirit (John 14:16-17), releases our brothers and sisters from the clutches of Satan (John 8:31-33; Galatians 6:1-5). When we suppress truth, the work of the Holy Spirit is resisted. When a person consistently suppresses truth, the Lord releases them to their desires; “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” (Romans 1:21; Ephesians 4:17-19; NASU) “Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.” (Romans 1:24; NASU)
Let us love, service, and seek to equip those who struggle in the LGBTQIA community so that we at least win some.