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The End of the World As We Know It: Take a Bite
Genesis 18:1-8 • Luke 19:1-7
Hospitality has changed since Biblical days.
But not entirely.
During the holidays, my family was invited to someone’s house for a celebration.
We hadn’t been before, so it wasn’t tradition by any stretch.
The invitation was completely unexpected.
We were honored to receive such an invitation to a meal from them.
Feeling that honor is fitting in our culture, right?
Well, in Biblical times, the honor of such an invitation is reversed!
Accepting someone’s invitation heaps honor on the HOST, not the other way around!
Now, some of this still remains, and we still feel that honor, especially when the person accepting the invitation is a high profile person.
If Paul McCartney came to Terre Haute for some strange reason … okay, maybe that’s not very believable.
Let’s say the President comes to town for some reason … campaign stop, or to survey a natural disaster, or to present an award for a local do-gooder or something.
And just imagine you invited the president to eat at your house.
How would you feel if he said yes? THAT is how honor worked in Biblical times.
In general, hospitality involved the process of “receiving” outsiders and changing them from strangers to guests.
Hospitality is not the same as entertaining family and friends.
We see lots of admonitions in Scripture to be hospitable to foreigners or travelers.
The Bible Dictionary continues...
Since transient strangers lacked customary or legal standing within the visited community, it was imperative that they be placed under the protection of a patron or host who was an established community member.
Through a personal bond with the host (something inns could not offer), strangers were incorporated into the community as guests or clients/protégés.
To offend the stranger-turned-guest was to offend the host, who was protector and patron of the guest (poignantly underscored in the case of Lot, Gen. 19:1–10).
Bruce J. Malina and Mark Allan Powell, “Hospitality,” ed.
Mark Allan Powell, The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary (Revised and Updated) (New York: HarperCollins, 2011), 395.
According to biblical narratives, travelers would often go to a public place in a town and wait for someone to offer them hospitality, such as lodging or food
Don’t read these passages, just forward as you read the text below:
In our Genesis passage, we aren’t told if Abraham recognized the three men as Yahweh, but he seems almost desperate to host them.
He runs to meet them.
And we can see Abraham’s honor at being allowed to host, when he asks if he can prepare food for them.
Notice, he doesn’t seem ‘put out’ by preparing food.
He offers food as a response for the HONOR of hosting them.
Then, he gets really frantic!
He runs to the tent and tells Sarah to start prepping some bread STAT “...and don’t use any of the cheap stuff!”
Then, Abraham picks a tender calf to be slaughtered and prepared for the guests.
When the food is ready, Abraham doesn’t even dare to eat with these special guests.
He becomes like their waiter.
Most translations say he “stood by them” under the tree.
[act out] “Man, I hope they like the food.
Please, let them like the food.
Oh, I can’t stand the tension … O PLEASE let them like the food.”
By hosting these three men, Abraham is honored.
That’s the really freaky part of the Zacchaeus story!
This story contains so many details, we usually miss the most important one of all:
It’s not that Zacchaeus is rich.
It’s not that Zacchaeus is short.
It’s not even Zacchaeus’ desperation to see Jesus as he walks through his town.
What seems to freak out the locals is what Jesus does.
Read this one!
How do we know this is the big deal?
Look how everyone reacted:
Zachaeus is in a hurry to get Jesus to his house!
He’s overjoyed to host Jesus!
But not everyone is so excited:
“He’s honoring this guy who’s been ripping us off on our taxes all these years?
THIS IS B.S.!”
See … they recognize that Jesus going to be Zacchaeus’ guest honors Zacchaeus.
The End of the World As We Know It: Take a Bite
A lot of important New Testament stuff takes place in people’s homes, and around a table.
Jesus uses the Passover meal as the place to institute what we know as Communion.
Communion’s root word is Community!
We experience community with Jesus and each other when we share around the Table.
And I don’t believe Jesus was unintentional about when to institute this meal.
After he’s resurrected, two disciples are walking on the road to a village named Emmaus.
They’re depressed.
Jesus appears alongside them as they walk, but they’re kept from recognizing him.
They talk as they walk, and Jesus asks why they seem down.
They’re shocked he hasn’t heard, but they explain we thought this guy was the Messiah, but the Jewish leaders handed him over to the Romans, and now he’s dead.
Some Messiah.
And Jesus explains the Old Testament passages about Messiah as they walk along.
When they get to Emmaus, they’re stopping and Jesus continues walking.
They stop him and invite him to stay with them because it was getting late.
He goes in, and they share a meal together.
And Jesus shifts from guest to host when he takes the bread and breaks it.
Their eyes are opened and they recognize Jesu in the breaking of the bread, and he vanishes.
They talk together about what they’d just experienced.
They recall that as Jesus explained the Old Testament’s prophesies and how his execution brought those prophesies to light, their hearts were burning within them.
Remember it was late … but they drop their plans and within the hour they were on their way back to Jerusalem to tell the 11.
They recognized Jesus in breaking bread.
They recognized Jesus when he became their host.
Last week, I shared by favorite Psalm.
This week, let me share my favorite single passage of Scripture:
In Revelation 3, the Lord has read the riot act to all of the churches in the area because they’ve wandered from him, some worse than others.
When he gets to the Church in Laodicea, he tells them he’s upset because they’re neither hot nor cold.
He says, “because you’re lukewarm, I’ll spit you out of my mouth!”
And that’s the BEGINNING of his dressing down of the Laodiceans.
But he concludes what he says to all the churches with these words:
Be earnest and repent!
And, then he shares what is my favorite statement in Scripture:
He is waiting to honor us.
He’s waiting to share a meal with us.
He’s waiting to talk with us and get to know us better.
At the end of the encounter on the road to Emmaus, the disciples are electrified!
They’ve had one of the most exciting conversations of their life.
Maybe you’ve had a meal with someone like that.
Maybe you walked away exhilarated, too.
But you certainly walked away closer to the other person than you were before.
Do you remember this from earlier?:
According to biblical narratives, travelers would often go to a public place in a town and wait for someone to offer them hospitality, such as lodging or food
The people on your list, may feel like strangers in the Christian community.
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