[Pastor Robbie Schmidtberger, our Church Planting Resident, is teaching our current School of Discipleship course, “Good News People: Speaking About Jesus While Becoming Like Him.” This class explores what it looks like to speak about Jesus naturally, while admitting that the most compelling aspect of Christian evangelism is when Jesus’ followers are becoming more and more like him.]
Jesus’ favorite name for himself was ‘the Son of Man.' Even his disciples called him that.
The established religious leaders (the Pharisees) of Jesus’ day followed a very rigid understanding of God’s law. While theirs was not the only Jewish sect or understanding of the law, it was the most popular and prevalent. Pharisees were sectarian, and believed that their favor with God depended on whom they hung out with. Jesus challenged their entire understanding of God’s grace by simply hanging out with sinners. So these Pharisees spoke loudly and often about how Jesus hung out with sinners and tax collectors, claiming that he himself was a drunkard and glutton.
So how did Luke defend Jesus against this criticism? He didn’t. He embraced it. “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, a friend of sinners and tax collectors” (Luke 7:34). Meals, for Jesus, were paramount to his ministry. Luke’s biography of Jesus clearly shows this. He is either going to a party, eating food, or leaving a meal. Jesus loved a good party; just consider the first miracle that he did. He changed water to wine, ultimately showing how following him gets better and better.
That’s the picture of the kingdom.
So how can we do this? How can we communicate the grace and community and mission that truly characterizes Jesus’ kingdom?
Let’s ask ourselves some diagnostic questions:
- Whom do we hang out with? Whom do we invite over to our homes?
Frankly, I bet the people whom we have over are very similar to ourselves in values, ethnicity, and class. That was not the way of Jesus though; he ate meals with everybody regardless of their disposition or class or occupation or background. If we want to display that the kingdom of God is a place for all people, then all people need to be welcomed into our homes. That means we need to invite all people into our homes.
- Are we willing to embrace the cost of hospitality?
Hospitality is costly. Edith Schaeffer, co-founder of L’Abri, wrote how the many years of hospitality resulted in every one of her china pieces being destroyed and finding cigarette holes in her drapes because that was where people put them out.
There is another aspect to cost too, and this is highlighted in the summer months when hospitality can be easier due to cookouts or BBQ. When you invite people over for a cookout, are you going to offer the same burgers that you eat or are you going to get the cheaper option? (I ask the question that way because that is how hospitality’s cost confronted me last week, as I had burgers from the butcher, a box of Bubba’s bacon chedder cheeseburgers, and a packet of 80/20 in my freezer. I had to figure out what I was going to serve some guys I had over for a cookout.) Was I willing to serve the best I had or simply the cheapest?
In Jesus’ kingdom, he serves the best. That’s what we find at least in the Parable of the Prodigal Son.
- Do our houses have to be perfect, clean and in order?
God accepts us as we are. All he requires is to feel our need of him. If we are not willing to have people over until our homes are nice and tidy, then we communicate that God expects us to have our act together before we go to him.
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Lastly, why is this so important? Because eating meals with others was the primary ways Jesus spoke about and showed what his kingdom is like. So practicing hospitality is a powerful way to love others as we show them what life with God is like.