What are some of your favorite meals of all time? I don’t just mean the food, but the occasion. The experience? Deep within us, we all long for good food and drink with family and friends, in which there’s conversation, joy and love. When someone passes, it’s what we miss: the table. This is pointing somewhere else, to something else. All of these experiences are pointing us to the kingdom of God. Additionally, the table, or hospitality is essential for understanding the nature of God and the mission of God. Those who have experienced Jesus’ gracious hospitality should extend the same type of gracious hospitality to others.
To do hospitality you don’t need a big house, or a big bank account, or a big personality; you need a big heart. You need a heart set free by grace. You need a heart set free to love others the way Jesus has loved you. This passage blows the dust off of our familiarity with grace, and should increase our affections for the Savior and our compassion for people. So lets think about the wonder of grace and the “heart of hospitality” from this text.
What is the main idea in this text? Jesus seeks out the despised as objects of God’s Grace, and we as His people, the church, are to go and do likewise! So this is the simple message today: follow Jesus giving Him all you have and invite others to get in on it, maybe even around a meal. That’s it, that’s the passage right there, so we can probably just pray and get home in time for the playoff kickoff. However, let me see if I can’t unpack it some.
