And Jesus went about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every sickness. And seeing the crowds, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were harassed and cast away like sheep not having a shepherd.
I grew up in Missouri, but my parents were southern. Southerners, especially from my parents’ generation, believe strongly in offering hospitality. Many times, I sat across the dinner table from a new face when I was growing up.
Hospitality is important. You see it all over the Old Testament. How sad, then, that we open the New Testament with the story of an inhospitable world God chose to visit as a vulnerable human infant. Very few people were awaiting His arrival, though they had been told to expect Him for many years. No exception to the harsh taxation system had been made for the young couple, the woman far into her pregnancy. No family agreed to receive them upon their return to the land of their ancestors. No innkeepers chose to make room for the small family. The Holy Infant entered the world to a very cold shoulder.
Jesus entered an uncaring world who barely gave Him any notice. Despite attempted murder, defamation, and rejection, He still continued His course and brought healing, reconciliation and salvation into the lives of many, ultimately laying down His very life to secure our eternal freedom.
Hospitality isn’t just an act or a good work. It’s the expression of what’s in our hearts. The continual expression of hospitable behavior toward others by Jesus despite the unjust treatment receive by Him, is a pattern for our own lives.
Lord, as we have received Your incredible hospitality, please let us examine our lives and ask what is being expressed by them. Help us to course-correct if we are inhospitable in any way. Amen.
Paula Barney
adminassist@livinglord.org
Prayer Concern: (Matthew 10:8) Freely you have received. Freely give.
-
Living Lord Lutheran Church
Contact
