Hospitality- God’s Invitation to Everybody

Scripture: John 3.1-17; Luke 7.36-50; James 2.1-4, 14-17


My friend Joe tells about the time he and his wife went to an open house. There was a stately old home in the small town where they lived that had been renovated and opened as a tea room and bed and breakfast. They put a placard out on the sidewalk which read, “Open House Today.”
Joe and his wife thought they would like to tour the house so they went and knocked on the front door. A man opened door and said, “Yes?”

“Hello, how are you?” Joe asked the man.

“Fine. What can I do for you?” the man replied.

“Well, we would like to see the house,” Joe said, kind of chuckling.

“I’m sorry?” The man looked at Joe.

“The Open House,” Joe said, with a trace of exasperation. “We are here for the Open House.”

“What Open House?” the man asked.

“The Open House you’re supposed to be having,” Joe replied, this time visibly exasperated.

“There is no Open House,” the man said matter-of-factly.

“The sign in your yard says differently,” Joe pointed out.

“I know nothing of an Open House,” Sergeant Carter from Hogan’s Heroes stated.

My friend was beginning to think that he had landed in an Abbot and Costello, Who’s on First routine.

“I’m sorry for the confusion,”Joe said, and he and wife turned and left, though he wasn’t really sorry as much as he was disturbed and confused and feeling not al little rejected by a strranger.










Jesus was once invited to a dinner party at the home of a Pharisee. As a rabbi, Jesus had been invited as a guest of honor. As such, certain rules of etiquette would be assumed.
The customary greeting was a kiss. This was not an expression of affection so much as a polite acknowledgment of the guest’s arrival. The way you kissed your guest, on the hand or the cheek, also followed certain rules, but to neglect the kiss entirely was the equivalent of ignoring someone. To put this in our own terms, say you were invited to someone’s house for dinner. The door is open, so you assume you are supposed to come in. Family members are busy watching television, no one gets up from the recliner or coach to greet you. No one even speaks to you or looks at you. To do this to a casual guest is rude; to do it to a guest of honor is a deliberate insult.

Again, the washing of feet for any guest was mandatory according to custom. If a guest was of high status, the host would wash their feet himself. If not, he might have a servant do it. A particularly lazy or arrogant host would set out a basin of water and expect the guest to bathe their own feet, but it would be like telling your guest they have to wash their own dishes after dinner.

A thoughtful host would provide some olive oil for anointing. In a world with surplus heat and a scarcity of deodorant, the gesture would be welcome.

In our story, Jesus arrives at the man’s home and receives nothing. No kiss. No greeting. No oil. Not even a bowl of water to wash himself with. Keep in mind, Jesus is no longer an obscure carpenter, but is now a renowned teacher whose fame and reputation is known near and far. His following is international in scope. Yet, at Simon’s home, Jesus is ignored, like he was not invited in the first place.

These are not subtle omissions, easily overlooked. They are intentional. Everybody present knows it. It’s like war has been declared. Everybody wants to see how Jesus will react. The tension is thick.

This was a private dinner, but it sort of had an Open House feel. This was to owing to the fact that anyone could and did walk up in the courtyard of a well-to-do to watch and listen to the dinner party. The onlookers were not invited to the dinner, but they could watch the Red Carpet proceedings. A woman is there. She is a prostitute and is known as such by everyone in that town. She has heard Jesus speak somewhere and something has spoken to her heart. Maybe she begins to wonder, “How in the world did I get to this point in my life?” She was once somebody’s little girl. She never planned on becoming a prostitute. We’re not sure how she got there but one thing is for sure - she knows what it means to be rejected. She is utterly rejected in her life. She is known as “a sinner.” No one in broad daylight talks to her or looks at her. Doors open for her only at night, in secret and shame.

She hears Jesus is going to be at this diinner so she comes to see him. She watches as Jesus is ignored and insulted and rejected, this good teacher being treated like people treat her, and she can’t stand it. Without thinking she enters the inner courtyard and kisses Jesus feet. On her knees she weeps over him, wetting his feet with her tears. She tries to dry them with her hair. She has brought an alabaster jar with oil and she anoints his feet then with this oil.

Everyone stares but nobody makes a sound. They’ll all waiting for the storm to hit.

We’re not sure why Simon invited Jesus to his house only to snub him. Maybe it was test. Maybe he wanted to see if Jesus was the real deal. If so, then the scene with the prostitute would have confirmed in Simon’s mind that Jesus was no man of God. Any self-respecting Rabbi would not be seen in public with such a woman.

But Jesus, knowing what Simon is thinking, tells him a little story about debt, forgiveness, and love.
Then, and this is important, Jesus turns directly toward the woman and says,

“Simon, do you see this woman?” Jesus is speaking to Simon but he’s looking at the woman, thereby willing his host to look at the woman as well.

“I entered your house, you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.” All the guests and onlookers are listening intently. They think, ‘Here comes the storm.’

Jesus continues. “You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. You gave me no oil to anoint myself with, but she has. Though her sins are many, they are forgiven, for she loves much. . .”

Jesus was telling Simon that he just didn’t get it. Simon the Pharisee used religion as a test that people passed or failed, mostly failed. Jesus was saying that true relgion is love for God expressed in loving others, even sinful others, even the stranger that you’ve never looked at before.

The Gospel is God’s Good News of Invitation to Everybody. Jesus explains this to Nicodemus in John 3. “God so loved the world that he came, by the Son. . .” God sought us ought and invited us to come and eat with him. The Good News is Divine Hospitality - God’s having a party, and dude, we’re all invited!

Can you see how Hospitality, this gift from the Holy Spirit, is so central to our salvation and joy and well-being in life?

Some individuals have the gift of hospitality. You can tell. They are so good at opening their homes to others. They are excited to have friends over for dinner, or to host a group of strangers even. Maybe theirs was the house where the kids of the neighborhood flocked to. They fed twice as many as their own, because they looked at all as their own. Their house was and is often packed.

You may not be that person. We don’t all have the spiritual gift of hospitality. But we are all called to give God’s invitation of welcome always to anyone we meet.


“My brothers and sisters, show no partiality as you hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man with gold rings and in fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, ‘Have a seat here, please,’ while you say to the poor man, ‘Stand over there,’ or ‘Sit down somewhere,’ have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

“What doe it profit, my brothers and sisters, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, and be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” James 2.1-4, 14-17


Church, can you see how Hospitality is at the center of who we are as the Body of Christ? It’s not enough, not enough, to be friendly with each other. We must truly be friends, and most importantly, welcome the visitor and stranger in our midst with humility and invitation and love.


We truly exist to serve and welcome those not yet a part of us. When the church is healthy and faithful, then God’s invitation to Everybody is answered. Everybody comes - all ages, all races, all shapes and sizes and multitudes of sins - all come to the invitation of love.

Some years ago Jennifer and I went out to dinner for our wedding anniversary. There was a restaurant in the area that had just opened and had some good buzz that we wanted to try. It didn’t open until five o’clock, which I thought was a little unusual, but we got there around five and found the door was locked. I knocked on the door (maybe they forgot to unlock), waited, but nobody came. There was lots of glass and we could see inside. There were people in there, sitting at the bar, having drinks, but the doors were locked. I knocked on the door a second time. There was a waiter walking around doing things, but he didn’t come to the door. A couple people at the bar even looked out through the glass at us, but nobody came to let us in. We got in the car and left for another restaurant.

Which is image is closer, do you think, to the Kingdom of God - the upscale restaurant with doors locked to all but a select few, or an ordinary house, packed with friends and strangers, eating together to their host’s delight?