For my family, the holidays have always been a time to fit anyone who will come into our house for food and fellowship. During the Christmas season, we would host a neighborhood party where people could come eat delicious treats and hear the “reason for the season.” And there were several years when we signed up to host people in the military who weren’t able to celebrate Thanksgiving with their families.
Now, as an adult, the expectation is that people who don’t have somewhere to go for the holidays will be invited to join us for our big family dinners. While such large gatherings can be demanding on my parents, and sometimes drain my social battery, these experiences have deeply influenced how I view the Great Commission.
Hospitality can be an underappreciated Christian value, but holidays and traditions—such as Thanksgiving and Christmas—serve up an ideal opportunity for students to practice it. We can help them understand that we should be hospitable to others not only because Jesus asks us to but also because this often increases openness to the Gospel.
Students may assume they can’t be hospitable because they don’t own a home in which they can host, but biblical hospitality is about bringing compassion and care wherever we go. An important part of Gospel Advancing is caring for those around us, an approach Jesus champions in Luke 14.
You are the neighbor.
Then Jesus said to His host, ‘When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’ Luke 14:12-14
Much of Luke 14 is a parable, but this section is a command. Jesus’s command should cause us to consider whom we’re inviting to our gatherings.
The problem isn’t inviting family and friends to our social gatherings; the problem is when we invite only people who have the potential to repay us for being included. This passage points us back to Jesus’s parable of the good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37.
Jesus doesn’t respond to the question “Who is my neighbor?” by telling His audience who their neighbors are. Instead, He flips the question on its head by focusing on what it means to be neighborly: to show mercy and generosity to everyone we encounter.
The question, “Who is my neighbor?” is wrongly oriented. Someone else isn’t the neighbor. You are the neighbor!
I’m reminded of one of my favorite quotes. In The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote:
Neighborliness is not a quality in other people, it is simply their claim on ourselves.
It’s our responsibility as Christians to be neighborly to anyone and everyone who has a need. Which is everyone!
Hospitality transcends social boundaries.
The people Jesus refers to in Luke 14:13 are among the last to be invited. For students, these are the people who are drafted last for the pickup basketball game. The discarded. The undesirable. But Jesus says we should invite these people first and give them seats of honor. Why? Because Jesus sees them as His own.
Many people talk about how Christians are supposed to be the hands and feet of Jesus, but we need to be His eyes and ears as well. Jesus sees and loves every person He has created, and so we should do the same.
As Gospel Advancing leaders, we have an opportunity to model this directive for our students. Middle school and high school often reinforce groups of social hierarchies. Jocks hang with the jocks, nerds hang with the nerds, geeks hang with the geeks. But the hospitality Jesus calls us to is one that transcends social boundaries and groups. “The poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind” are the people no one else notices—but we can.
It’s not about hosting—it’s about including.
They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and He preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to Him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralyzed man, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’ Mark 2:2-5
This story is a great example of how hospitality is about more than just hosting. It’s about caring. The man’s friends bring him to the feet of Jesus because he could not bring himself. Being hospitable means bridging the gap between people’s circumstance and their ability to encounter Jesus.
Since hospitality is about caring for people, not just hosting, we’re free to create a hospitable environment wherever we go. The good Samaritan was far from his home when he showed hospitality to the man left broken and bloody by the road to Jericho.
As Gospel Advancing leaders, we should lead our students in considering both how we invite people into our spaces and how we are bringing inviting spaces to the people around us.
How can we be like the friends of the paralyzed man, bringing people to the feet of Jesus who can’t get there on their own?
Help your students consider who might physically be unable to make it to church. Who needs help and no one notices? Encourage your students to meet that person where they are and bring Christian hospitality to them!
The blessing of new salvations
We Gospel Advancing leaders know that the ultimate goal is for people to find salvation in Christ alone. That’s why the “Care” section of the Cause Circle is so important. It facilitates the “Share” section. Including and caring for people creates a pathway to share the Gospel with them.
Jesus says that we will be rewarded in Heaven for the way we show hospitality to those who cannot repay us. But the best reward we can receive is seeing people saved.
This season, help your students consider how to bring hospitality to their community. Brainstorm how they can be hospitable and include people who need hospitality to be brought to them. Then have them use that opportunity to love those people and share the Gospel with them. We may all be surprised to see whom God chooses to include at Christ’s heavenly banquet.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Matthew 28:19-20
