Women of Welcome: Christ-Like WelcomeНамуна

A word from Jeanette Salguero

Who is my neighbor? What a strange question. It can convey a search for deeper meaning, unspoken fears, or willful ignorance. Most of us know who our neighbors are. Still, we are ever aware that neighborliness can be costly. The cost appears higher to us when we do not like our neighbors. The neighbors we do not like are the ones many prefer to label “stranger,” or worse, “enemy.” The Parable of the Good Samaritan reminds us that Christian hospitality is risky. When we ask who our neighbor is, we are also asking how much welcoming them will cost. The temptation to pass on the other side looms large.

Hospitality requires intentionality. The Jericho road is broken and has been broken for some time. No one is surprised by the muggings, and there is a sense of heightened fear and distrust on the Jericho road. Passing on the other side is often a product of fears and distrust. The Levite and the priest passed on the other side even when the highest commandments bid them to do otherwise. Fear is a powerful enemy of welcome! Only perfect love can cast out fear.

The adjective good was given to this Samaritan, although the prevailing assumption was that Samaritans could not be good. Calling enemies good not only shatters cultural expectations, it also reframes welcome. The Samaritan is good because he is a radical boundary-crosser. Welcome of enemies is no small crossing. Apathy and indifference prevent nearness. Passing on the other side means clinging to enmity in the place of charting a new way forward. Passing on the other side is the opposite of welcome.

Welcome and proximity are inseparable. The Samaritan’s welcome is highly incarnational and sacrificial. The Samaritan’s welcome comes close, heals, and pays the innkeeper. God invites us to dare this type of closeness. The call to bless those who persecute us and revile us is often preached but seldom practiced. The Samaritan is a neighbor not because of his geographic location but because of his posture of welcome for those who stereotyped and marginalized him. It was his willingness to risk connectedness that redefines the concept of neighbor from location to posture. Welcome is a posture on the Jericho roads of life that seeks to broaden neighborhoods beyond those of our race, tribe, nation, or tongue. The Good Samaritan’s welcome at its core shatters hostilities, forgives enemies, and makes them neighbors.

Thoughtful Questions:

1. Who might the people in this story be in a modern setting: the priest, the Levite, the Samaritan, the man wounded by the roadside? Do you identify with any of these?

3. What are the fears or excuses that often cause you to pass on the other side of those who need your welcome?

3. Ask God how you can cultivate a welcoming spirit and posture like the Good Samaritan. Is there one step you can take this week?