Who’s the Host?

October 10th, 2017 Posted in writing

At the start of that day when Jesus called Matthew from his job as a tax collector, Matthew probably would have never guessed that when the day ended, instead of being surrounded by coins and receipts, he would be at dinner with people he might never have met before but who had also accepted Jesus’ invitation to be his followers.

Surprisingly, though, the gospel story never says where the dinner took place. It simply says that later that day Jesus and Matthew and their friends ate together, with no indication of whether the “house” was Jesus’ or Matthew’s. Certainly one of them was the host, but we don’t know which one.

Maybe our ignorance as to who hosted the dinner can remind us that in our ongoing relationship with Jesus, sometimes Jesus hosts us and sometimes we host him. Sometimes Jesus invites us into his world, welcomes us there and introduces us to his friends. At other times don’t we find ourselves inviting Jesus into our world to share our experiences and meet our friends?

We might want to take a moment as we wake up and ask who is going to be hosting the day. Will Christ invite us to enter his day or will we invite Christ to enter ours? Whichever it is, the important thing is that we and Jesus spend it together.

  1. One Response to “Who’s the Host?”

  2. By Pat Ostrander on Oct 11, 2017

    There is also a third scenario that merits consideration. 1) Jesus can host us. 2) We can host Jesus. 3) We accept an invitation from a friend, co-worker or acquaintance to “dine” with them, and it turns out that they have also invited Jesus to the “meal!” Never be too surprised, when Jesus shows up at a party you have been invited to…

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