Open Doors. Open Hearts.Sample

The flow of grace.

I find the way that the gospel writers describe Jesus’ interactions with the Samaritans endlessly compelling. Without doubt, as he grew up in Nazareth, Jesus would have encountered the biases and prejudices of his community toward their neighbours. Jews and Samaritans had grievances against one another that went back centuries. Ethnic rivalries, religious differences and political posturing separated them and occasionally flared into violence.

It is telling, then, that when we observe how Jesus interacts and speaks about Samaritans it is completely counter-cultural: he chastises his disciples for getting angry when they are snubbed by Samaritan villagers (Luke 9:51-56); his most famous parable has a Samaritan as the hero and the one to be emulated (Luke 10:25-37); he sits and shares a drink alone with a Samaritan woman (John 4:1-38). In all these examples, the Jewish onlookers are scandalised. For us today, we should ask ourselves: what was Jesus doing here?

When we view Jesus’ engagement with the Samaritans through the lens of hospitality, we begin to see something extraordinary. In his desire to open himself up to another person, he is willing to break with convention—he practices proximity with the ‘unclean’, he shares his table with ‘outsiders’, and he recognises God at work in the ‘unbeliever’. As a result of this, enemies become neighbours, strangers are seen as a gift, and ‘the other’ becomes an agent of God’s grace.

Jesus’ example of hospitality also calls us to open our hearts to others, whoever they are, in radical ways. In doing so, we can expect a sacred space to open which allows the grace of God to flow through the Holy Spirit. This, then, will become a place of transformation.

For reflection:

Can you think of a time when offering unconditional hospitality created space for the grace of God to flow? What happened?

A prayer for today:

Dear Lord, thank you for showing us what hospitality looks like. Help us to open our hearts to others in radical ways and, in so doing, create space for your grace to flow.

AMEN