Updated Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Formations lesson for July 13: Hospitality to the Poor

By Lamar King

Focal Passage: Ruth 2:2-17

How often the New Testament reminds us that poor people were very important to Jesus. He showed great hospitality to the very people with whom we seldom rub shoulders in life and who are seldom the object of our evangelistic outreach.

In Mark 10, Jesus met a very rich man who wanted to know how to inherit eternal life. Jesus invited the rich man to become his disciple but with this caveat: "Go sell all you have and give it to the poor and come follow me" (Mk. 10:21). The rich man declined the invitation to discipleship and went away grieved "because he had great possessions."

Then Jesus, according to Mark, made a pronouncement to his disciples that amazed them: "It is very hard for people who have money to enter the kingdom of God." Peter demanded clarity and reminded Jesus, "Lord, we have left everything and followed you" (Mk. 10:28).

Peter's mind had been working, and, characteristically, Peter's tongue could not stay still. He had just heard Jesus say that a man's money might actually shut him out of the kingdom of God. Peter could not help drawing the contrast between that man and himself and his friends. Peter, discouraged by Jesus' rebuke of prosperity theology, wanted to know what benefits there were in following Jesus.

Modern Christians often express similar concerns with slightly different words: "Lord, we've just had a very rich man to show interest in your church. He could have been a lot of help to us. But, you ran him off, and you declared that it is very hard for his kind to get into the kingdom of God. Lord, we don't need less people like him, we need more. We need money if we are going to be successful in your mission. Poor people we can live without, but we need the rich."

We wonder how "poor" people can be of any benefit to today's church that has budgets with salaries to pay, programs to fund, buildings to maintain, and missions to support. Wouldn't the church reap her greatest benefit by showing hospitality, not to the poor, but to middle and upper income people?

Jesus dismisses this notion with his assurance that God will take our little or our much and make of it what He wishes just so long as we do not think we have so little that God does not need us or that we have so much that we do not need Him.