Be Welcoming 1

Luke 5:17-20

I have to admit that when we know certain people are coming to our house we will put some things away where no one can see them. We might close the door to the master bedroom so no one can see our personal items or have access to some private documents. We may hide that special dessert we don’t want to share.

We try to be welcoming to visitors, but even our best efforts do not involve complete hospitality and openness. But Jesus has shown how to be very welcoming.

This story from Luke may be very familiar to many. Who is with Jesus? What special ability does he have at this time? Who “drops by?” How does Jesus respond?

This is a fairly well-known story from the Bible. Some men have a friend who is paralyzed – unable to walk and get around. He is so disabled that he must be carried from place to place by the friends.

Apparently, word has gotten out about Jesus and this group of men decides to bring the paralyzed man to be healed, but the crowd at Jesus’ home (the same story in Mark 2:1 puts it at his house) was so thick they couldn’t get inside. Desperate to have their friend healed they get on the roof of the house and dig a hole in it so they can lower the paralyzed man to Jesus.

We might expect Jesus to react as we would – “What are you doing to my roof!?” And perhaps we might expect Jesus to refuse to heal the paralyzed man because of what his friends did. After all some important folks were present and this intrusion may have been an embarrassment.
But instead Jesus sees the power of the faith the friends had. Because of that he was merciful and healed the man. The intrusion was forgiven and the men were welcomed.

Now the question is, how do we feel about those who visit us in our church? Certainly any visitors who may stop by your place of worship don’t dig a hole in the roof to enter. And yet we may treat them as unwelcome intruders, an inconvenience to our weekly ritual, or an invasion of our private time with God.

Can we be like Jesus and recognize the act of faith that it took for these persons to come in to the church? Can we be forgiving of any tiny error they might make? Can we welcome them in love?

DAILY CHALLENGE: Find a place near an entrance to your place of worship this coming weekend. Smile and welcome all who enter BEFORE you find your regular seat.