New Testament Hospitality is rooted in the mission of Jesus. As Jesus begins his earthly ministry, he steps into the synagogue in Nazareth and reads from Isaiah. The mission statement of Jesus in Luke 4:18-19 ends with “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Jipp says that “favor” could be easily translated “welcome” based on Luke’s regular used of the Greek root in hospitality narratives.[1] This gives a peek into Jesus’s own understanding of his mission: he was here to show God’s heart for all people (John 10:16). Though it is not the scope of this paper, it is interesting to note that Luke (more than the other gospel writers.[2]) emphasizes this welcoming heart of Jesus through an emphasis on his hospitality encounters:
Luke sees the whole life and ministry of Jesus as a visitation on God’s part to Israel and the world. From the start this raises the question, how will this guest, this visitor, be received? The crucial point is that those who do receive him find that he brings them into a much wider sphere of hospitality: the “hospitality of God.” The One who comes as visitor and guest in fact becomes host and offers hospitality in which human beings and potentially, the entire word can become truly human, be at home, know salvation in the depths of their hearts.[3]
Jesus wanted this understanding of his mission and life to be received and practiced by his followers. There is no better portrayal for this desire for his followers than his teachings in two influential hospitality texts: the parable of the good Samaritan in Luke 10 and the teaching on the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25. Both are based in hospitality; both are grounded in the care of “the least” and “the foreigner” (which is how Samaritans were viewed); both are portrayals of what guides mankind’s relationship with and love for God; both are challenges to act in gracious ways – to “go and do likewise” (Luke 10:37). Helping take care of people’s needs regardless of position, status or culture through food, care and sharing life was not only found in the teaching of Jesus, it was also depicted through his regular practices of eating and drinking. Jesus was an actual host who dispenses the Lord’s welcome by sharing meals with strangers, sinners, and outsiders. In fact, one of the primary ways in which Jesus enacts the year of divine welcome is by sharing his saving presence with all kinds of people at meals. It is precisely through Jesus’s eating meals with outsiders that he creates the hospitable space where outsiders experience the saving presence of God and are thereby transformed from strangers to friends of God.[4]
Arguably the most powerful example and teaching on Jesus’s passion and purpose for hospitality is found in his expose’ in Luke 15 on giving it and receiving it. Once again, the religious establishment is complaining against him for hanging out with and eating with “sinners” (Luke 15:1). By showing and receiving hospitality from “the least,” he’s actually doing what he’s teaching (could this be the source of his authority in Matthew 7:29?). Then, through the three parables in chapter 15, he shows the great lengths to which he – God – would go to find “the least,” the sinner, “the foreigner,” those who are far from God. Interestingly, and not by accident, all three parables include party/feast images!
In Jesus’s life throughout the gospels, he is seen as both recipient AND host. As he traveled throughout the countryside, he had no set place to rest each night (Matt. 8:20, Lk.9:58), so he would accept lodging and food. “From the external standpoint, the work of Jesus obviously rested to a large degree on the hospitality extended to Him (Mk. 1:29 ff.; 2:15 ff.; 14:3 ff. etc.).”[5] Yet even in those settings, he would end up playing the part of a host, making people feel welcome and “at home” in his presence and encouragements (see the quote from Byrne and from Jipp above). These acts as both recipient and host would change lives. The story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19 poignantly demonstrates this. Jesus noticeably practiced and received hospitality almost daily and calls his followers to do the same.
[1]Jipp, 21
[2] See Robert J. Karris’ book Eating Your Way Through Luke’s Gospel. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2006. He sees food and Jesus’s interactions with people over food as the theme of Luke.
[3] Brendan Byrne, The Hospitality of God: A Reading of Luke’s Gospel. (Revised Edition. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2015), 8.
[4] Jipp, 22.
[5] Gustav Stählin, “ξένος, ξενία, ξενίζω, ξενοδοχέω, Φιλοξενία, Φιλόξενος,” ed. Gerhard Kittel, Geoffrey W. Bromiley, and Gerhard Friedrich, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964–), 20.