Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Isaiah 45-50
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Matthew 10:11-15
Jesus:When you enter a town or village, look for someone who is trustworthy and stay at his house as long as you are visiting that town. When you enter this home, greet the household kindly. And if the home is indeed trustworthy, let your blessing of peace rest upon it; if not, keep your blessing to yourself. If someone is inhospitable to you or refuses to listen to your testimony, leave that house or town and shake the dust from your feet. This is the truth: Sodom and Gomorrah, those ancient pits of inhospitality, will fare better on judgment day than towns who ignore you tomorrow or next week.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
This is probably one of those passages you just run through real fast to get to the next one, isn’t it? Jesus already said stay with someone in the villages you enter. So it makes sense to thank them for their hospitality before you leave. We just jump right over these verses, though, without really thinking much about them in the scheme of what Jesus tells His disciples to do. Let me read it to you again and listen carefully to the authority Jesus gives His disciples.
“When you enter a town or village, look for someone who is trustworthy and stay at his house as long as you are visiting that town. When you enter this home, greet the household kindly. And if the home is indeed trustworthy, let your blessing of peace rest upon it; if not, keep your blessing to yourself. If someone is inhospitable to you or refuses to listen to your testimony, leave that house or town and shake the dust from your feet. This si the truth: Sodom and Gomorrah, those ancient pits of inhospitality, will fare better on judgment day than towns who ignore you tomorrow or next week.”
Wow! These guys are to go to the town square and figure out from the average citizen who is trustworthy in the village. Go to that person’s house, knock on the door, invite themselves in, and stay there as long as they stay in that village. Now what do you think about their mission? I thought yesterday bit off more than we could chew, but this is really radical! But those were Jesus’ words not mine or yours. Notice Jesus said, “When you enter this home.” Not “if you enter this home.” He didn’t expect His disciples to get an invitation from the villagers, He expected them to go to the most trustworthy person according to the standards of those in the village. When they arrive at that person’s house, greet them kindly, and tell them their taking up residence in their house as long as they stay in that village.
So how long would that be if someone came to your door? “Hi, I’m Simon. I work for this new preacher in town. I’ve come to stay with you until I decide to leave your city. By the way, I don’t have any money or extra clothes or bedding or anything except what you see on my back. So I expect you to take care of me as long as I’m in town.”
Reminds me of the popular television show, “What Would You Do?” To be honest, I’d probably tell him to take a hike. Am I going to let a stranger stay in my house indefinitely? It will take a lot of nudging, well to be honest it will take a 2×4 across the back of the head from the Holy Spirit to help me know I’m really supposed to do something like that. Someone I know, sure. Someone referred to me, probably. A stranger off the street…these days? Hmmmm.
Listen to their authority, with rewards and punishments, though! If hospitable, leave your blessing of peace. If inhospitable, shake the dust off your feet and leave. They will be judged more harshly than Sodom and Gomorrah. Remember those two cities? Fire and brimstone falling out of the sky until no trace of those two cities exist today! That’s authority for deciding whether a host is good to your or not.
So what? What are we supposed to do today? Do we take in every stranger off the street? Do we give up our homes to anyone who comes around? I think the answer is maybe. The answer is do what God tells you to do. I’m pretty sure there was a reason Jesus sent His disciples to the most trustworthy person in each village. When Jesus’ disciples showed up, these trustworthy men saw something in them that was different than the people that surrounded him everyday. He saw the same trustworthiness and integrity he exercised in his daily life. He saw in these disciples’ eyes the same kindness he showed to others every day. It was not hard for him to extend his personal grace and hospitality to these itinerant preachers sharing the good news of the kingdom of heaven.
But to see trustworthiness, we must be trustworthy. To see kindness, honesty, integrity in the core of a person in that first meeting, in must be in your core. To discern the makeup of the person in front of you, you must have those qualities deep inside you. Only then will you know what that inner peace and confidence looks and feels like when you meet another of your kind. To be one of those to whom Jesus sent the disciples, your actions must demonstrate who you are on the inside by consistent behavior day in and day out through every situation that arises. Then others will call you trustworthy, a person of integrity, honest, loyal, a person of great character.
It was probably easy for the villagers to point the disciples to the right house in every place they visited. So the big question as Christians in a sin-filled world, where will people in your neighborhood point if a disciple asks the question, “Can you point me to the most trustworthy person around here?”
Will they point to your house?
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