Sacrificial Hospitality
Scripture: Luke 10:25-37
A lawyer once asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?”. His famous answer in telling the story of the Good Samaritan makes it clear that your neighbor could be anyone. Whether they are your friend or your enemy, they are always your neighbor and, therefore, worthy of your love. Our topic today takes that question one step further by asking “How do you love your neighbor?” Is it as simple as donating a few dollars here and there? How about having them over for a meal? Maybe it’s when we bring over a meal to someone going through a difficult moment. By looking at the example of the Good Samaritan, what’s true about each of these suggestions is that loving our neighbor can look like all of them or none of them, all at once. Notice what makes the Good Samaritan truly good. It’s not that he simply did what was right or expected of him. Indeed, the truth is that he was the least expected person in this story to help the man left on the side of the road for dead. Rather, what we see is the way in which he cared for the man in ways that went beyond what was expected of any man in the same situation.
First, we see the Samaritan’s reaction to the situation as he looks upon the beaten man with compassion. Out of this place of deep emotion, the Samaritan then proceeds to tend to the man’s wounds by offering anything he had on hand. He bandages the man’s wounds and anoints him with oil and wine. Next, we see him lift the man onto his own donkey as they travel to the nearest town with him now having to walk. We also see him take the man to an inn so that he can be taken care of and restored to dignity. The Samaritan man even goes so far as to pay for the man’s expenses with the willingness to pay more if need be. As the story goes, the Samaritan pays 2 denarii, which would have paid for roughly a week’s worth of lodging and food. Mind you, this is also a Samaritan man taking a wounded Jewish man to a Jewish inn in a Jewish village. The Samaritan man is exposing himself to further physical harm with the promise of returning to pay any further expenses. The care the Samaritan man displays for this Jewish man who would have been considered his enemy is costly, time-consuming, and sacrificial.
Each of these seemingly minor details paints a picture of the kind of costly love that Christians are called to embody. It is a love that knows no bounds and often requires sacrifice on our part. Whether this sacrifice is financial or material is unimportant. What’s truly important is that it begins the same way it began for the Samaritan, with true compassion. Sacrificial hospitality should never be an obligation. Similar to the lawyer who posed the first question, being neighborly can never be a means of justifying oneself. Rather, to have a costly love means it has first been purchased for us. Only then can we give it away and offer it freely to others.
Study questions:
How do you define a neighbor in your own life?
What details about the story of the Good Samaritan stand out to you?
Have you ever found yourself in the lawyer’s shoes? With a desire to “justify” yourself and, perhaps, even “test” Jesus?
What does a “costly love” mean for how we approach hospitality?
What does true compassion look like to you?
