Last week, I started writing about the biblical practice of hospitality, the views of other Americans toward those of us who are Christians, and how the practice of hospitality could help alter those views.  Hospitality begins as attitude and passion.  We can see this in the attitude of the father in Jesus’ parable of the prodigal.  The father waited, watched, hoped, and longed for his son’s return.  Hospitality begins as we develop that attitude of waiting, watching, hoping, and longing. 

Hospitality, however, is sustained by passion.

 (Luke 11:5-10) ⁵Then he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, ⁶because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.'  ⁷"Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.'

⁸I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

⁹"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  ¹⁰For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Jesus tells the above parable to encourage his disciples to pray.  The context, however, is hospitality.  The friend who arrives at the man’s house has a right to hospitality according to the customs of the day.  The man takes his friend’s claim so seriously that he wakes up another friend asking to borrow some bread for the traveler.  When the friend refuses, the man continues to bug him until he finally relents.  The word the NIV translates as boldness could also be translated persistence, shameless persistence.  This man is willing to be rude, even disrespectful of his other friend, to show proper hospitality to the traveler. 

I think this parable offers a great example of the kind of passion needed to sustain hospitality.  The man is relentless and shameless in his desire to care for his friend.  He is even willing to strain his other friendship to offer hospitality.  In other words, this man is willing to experience personal injury or suffering in order to care for his friend.  What boldness!  What passion! 

Passion takes us above and beyond our responsibilities. 

We can see this in Jesus’ story about The Good Samaritan.  Looking past the audacity of the Samaritan’s care for the Jewish man (Samaritans and Jews hated each other), the Samaritan went above the normal requirements of hospitality.  Treating the man’s wounds and providing him a place to recover for a few days would have been enough.  The Samaritan, however, promised to do more when he returned.  The Samaritan went above and beyond his responsibility.  His passionate concern for the beaten man led him to do more. 

Back to Jesus’ story in Luke 11:

Jesus places us in the parable.  He begins with “Suppose one of you has a friend…”  Jesus wanted his disciples, and by extension wants us, to put ourselves in that man’s place.  What would we do?  Would we be so impertinent?  Would we continue to bug one friend to care for another?  Jesus encourages us to pray.  From the Good Samaritan, though, we also see the need to offer hospitality.  This is part of the great commandment to love our neighbors.  Do we care enough?  Are we passionate enough to offer care to those we meet?

Two or three years ago, we had a lady attend our church for a short time.  One Sunday, she told a few of us that her cousin had been in an accident.  She was in a coma with severe brain trauma.  Two of our members asked me if I thought it would be okay for them to go to the hospital and pray for this lady’s cousin.  They didn’t know the lady very well and didn’t know her cousin at all.  When I called to get the hospital room number, I was told a group from our church had already visited and prayed for the lady and the family.  I didn’t need to drop by.  A couple of days later, I called again.  I found out that people from our church had returned and continued to pray for them.  Thank God, the cousin eventually recovered with limited consequences. 

This is a wonderful example of our church offering hospitality to others—a lady who only attended our church briefly and her cousin who, to my knowledge, has never attended one of our gatherings.  It’s a wonderful example of how attitude (watching, waiting, hoping, and longing for the opportunity to care) and passion (the willingness to go above and beyond) blended in our church and resulted in biblical hospitality. 

My prayer is that God will continue to develop this attitude and passion within us.  I pray he will continue to encourage and inspire us to care for others and offer to them the welcome of the Kingdom.  Where our enthusiasm has waned, I pray he will rekindle within us the passion of hospitality.