Love Thy Neighborhood: Part 4 (Is Jesus at your table?)

"As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. 39 Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught. 40 But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.” 41 But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! 42 There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”-Luke 10:38-42There are many ideas that may come to mind when we think of hospitality, even poor Martha got it wrong.We often think hospitality needs to look and feel a certain way.Hospitality is not a Pinterest inspired meal. It is not a clean home. Hospitality is not having it all figured it.Hospitality is authentically connecting with others.HOSPITALITY [Gk philoxenia (φιλοξενια)]. The practice of receiving a guest or stranger graciously was common to many social groups throughout the period in which the OT and NT were composed. But special nuances of hospitality, particularly with regard to the guest and host roles played by God or Christ, serve to distinguish the notions of the biblical writers from those of their contemporaries. The word most often associated with hospitality in the LXX and the NT is xenos, which literally means foreigner, stranger, or even enemy.In the NT one who receives visitors is said to be philoxenos, i.e., a “lover of strangers,” or to be practicing the virtue of philoxeniaThere is no “one word” for hospitality in the scripture…. The act of hospitality is seen throughout the scriptures both OT and NT.