- Tables
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The Bible tells us in Matthew 8:20 that Jesus Himself didn’t own a home and had nowhere to lay His head. But Jesus stayed in disciples’ homes when He traveled and He was constantly inviting people to His table.
As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” -Matthew 9:9-13
Matthew the disciple was a tax collector (nobody likes the tax man) it was also fairly common in this culture for these tax collectors to be corrupt, like Zaccheaus. Jesus sat at his dinner table, and other “sinners” or irreputable people… (most likely Matthew’s friends) came to hang out with Jesus, too. The religious people were confused “Why is He hanging out with people like that? Why is he choosing to give those people his time?” Jesus says “I am leveraging my relationships and time for the gospel. Sick people are the ones that need medicine.” Doctors who care about people go to where the sick people are.
The Pharisees put a lot of stock in ritual and tradition, but Jesus says mercy and compassion are what God wants from our hearts. How much of the church’s time and resources go toward keeping saved people comfortable, rather than bringing hope to those that are without Christ?
How many of your relationships are with people who could use that same hope of the gospel that changed your life? How much of our hospitality is used on people who already know you love them and Christ loves them? Is any of our hospitality used on people that are strangers, unconnected from a church family?
It is true that it’s so much less messy to keep people at arm’s length. It takes no effort or sacrifice to yell “praying for ya man…” as we walk away! Hospitality is a huge piece of this puzzle of being a missionary in my sphere of influence. Loving God, Loving people, and going. Just listening and being present with people. Giving the gift of time. Waiting on the Holy Spirit to create opportunities to speak the words of Jesus and then being bold enough to take those opportunities.
There is a good chance that when you sit around tables with strangers, there will be places you disagree. The key to navigate this is first getting to know their story before you offer any advice. Be curious about where their ideas are different from yours and giving them the benefit of the doubt, thinking the best of these people, meeting people where they are at and letting them know you care about them.
Now, we do need to be careful not to be weird and creep people out. We don’t want to corner new people in the church for 30 minutes after a service when it’s clear they are ready to head home. It’s a balance of saying yes to the Holy Spirit and moving then trusting God to do the rest. Christian hospitality opens our hearts to people like God opened His heart to us.