Just Visiting

DAILY BYTE

While searching on the internet this week for images that illustrate Christian hospitality, I came upon a cartoon of a couple shopping in a mattress store. The woman comments to the store clerk, “We’re shopping for a mattress for our guest room. We don’t want anything too comfortable...”

As a culture, we tend to be okay with people coming to visit for short periods of time, but we’re not too keen when people stick around for a while. We even have a name for this – when people “overstay their welcome...”

Yesterday, we talked briefly about the phenomenon of “visiting” people who are different than we are to have “cultural experiences.”

I’m not saying these visits are wrong – they are definitely a step in the right direction. We can’t know or understand others without spending some time with them. But it seems there are a few further steps on the road that we’re called to as disciples of Jesus Christ.

On the road to Emmaus in the Gospel of Luke, the disciples are walking along deep in discussion and they come upon someone unknown to them. This unknown person asks them to be let in to the conversation – he says – what are you talking about, as you walk along?

And in chapter 24, verse 17 it says they stopped walking then – they stopped in their tracks and Cleopas calls it like he sees it – he says – you’re obviously not from around here! Cleopas calls the unknown person a stranger and asks if he’s the only person anywhere around who is an outsider – who doesn’t know what’s happened. And then Cleopas and his friend start to tell this stranger a long story about the crucifixion and the way that people from their group of friends had found the tomb empty – things they somehow expect the outsider to know but that he couldn’t possibly have known unless he was in their group himself when they discovered these things.

But then, the stranger surprises them. This stranger that they’ve bumped into on the road starts telling them how it really is. He tells them that they’re actually missing the point of how the Messiah was going to redeem Israel. He goes back and preaches to them about the whole history of their people and faith – he goes back to the beginning with Moses and all the prophets, interpreting things about the Messiah in all the scriptures. He basically says – oh yeah? – you think you’re the ones in the know? You have no idea – you have no idea what I, this stranger – can teach you about your own life – and about this particular situation you’re in. Let me give you a “cultural experience.”

Have you ever encountered someone different than you who was able to shed light on who you are? What strangers are you meeting on the road, and are you listening to what they have to say?

FOCUS READING

Luke 24:13-27 (NRSV)

Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, ‘What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?’ They stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, ‘Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?’ He asked them, ‘What things?’ They replied, ‘The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.’ Then he said to them, ‘Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?’ Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.