SERIES
Sojourn: Toward an Enduring City
2017-05-28T11:00:00-05:00
11:1 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me.42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.”43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.”44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright (c)2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. http://www.esv.org
It may sound cliché, but we have much to learn from the early church, from those who embraced the Christian message and lifestyle in all of its freshness and force. When we read the New Testament, particularly books like Acts and the life and letters of Peter, we see a clear and vibrant commitment to worship, prayer, evangelism, and the Holy Spirit. In varying degrees, many of those commitments have been emphasized throughout the history of the church and continue to be valued today.
But this past Sunday we considered a commitment of the early church that for various reasons has fallen by the wayside, at least in the contemporary American churches. In his book, Thirty Years That Changed the World, scholar Michael Green notes that it was hospitality that was one of the hallmarks of the lifestyle of the early church. He writes, “Hospitality is one of the greatest joys in life, and the early Christians used it to the full; but it is undeniably costly. It costs time, effort, trouble, money. Yet the first Christians found it absolutely central to their mission. Their hospitality to strangers was legendary…This love, this cohesiveness, this hospitality is no less vital today.” The hospitality Green describes, and which Peter commends in 1 Peter 4:9, is the practice of welcoming people into one’s home, not only for a few hours of talking and eating, but for an extended time of living as guests.
Countless dynamics of our culture push back against the idea of practicing this type of hospitality. Many of us have become too busy, too individualistic, too fearful, and too dependent on institutions to consider hospitality possible, much less normal. Sure, there may be some younger “radical” Christians who could take the disruption of hospitality in stride, or maybe some older “empty nester” Christians who might even enjoy the hustle and bustle of it for a season. But if Peter only knew the pace and pressures of our lives, he might back off the idea of hospitality as a universal Christian commitment, right? Probably not. In fact, he might just consider that question itself a form of “grumbling” (1 Peter 4:9).
It’s worth noting that hospitality is the first example Peter gives of what it looks like to, “love one another earnestly (1 Peter 4:8).” If hospitality is an act of love, there’s little room for opting out. In fact, if hospitality is an act of love than it is one of the most essential duties of our lives as Christians. Remember how Jesus described the most important commandments? He said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 22:37-40).” To show loving hospitality, no matter how counter-cultural or disruptive it may seem, is basic to Christianity.
By God’s grace, in Jesus Christ we have a perfect model of and motivation for hospitality. In the most unexpected and selfless acts of history, the Son of God left his home and sacrificed Himself so that we, His enemies, would be shown eternal welcome in heaven as His family. As we consider together how God is calling us to show hospitality to one another, may God dissolve our objections and fears with the power of His loving hospitality to us.