The Cost of Hospitality

Have you ever hesitated to open up your home because of the cost? The cost of providing food and drink for a group of people. The cost of giving up an evening of your time. Not just one evening of time, but also the time to tidy your home and prepare. There is often a mess to clean up after people have visited. Sometimes items in our home can get damaged… 

I remember one joy-filled night, we had a house full of friends. I had walked downstairs to check on the kids (where they were playing in our toy room) and one of our precious neighbor girls walked around the corner holding a toy keyboard. She had the keyboard in one hand, and a microphone in the other hand. The cord of the microphone dangled freely where it was previously attached to the keyboard. Someone had gotten a little too rowdy with the toy keyboard, and it would now forever be separated from its microphone. 

I have encouraged my kids multiple times after a gathering, when we have to remember to choose gratitude over the time shared - instead of focusing on the mess that now needs to be cleaned up. 

Recently, I gathered some Scripture references where we see Jesus meeting people in their homes. I wanted to see what we could learn about how Jesus interacts with others in homes. 

One of the stories I landed on was this story from Luke chapter 5:

Jesus Forgives and Heals a Paralyzed Man

17 One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. 18 Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. 19 When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.

20 When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”

21 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

22 Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? 23 Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 24 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 25 Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God.

Luke 5:15-25 - NIV

This is a beautiful story about faith and community. We see a group of friends having deep faith and taking action in love for their friend’s healing. We see an absolutely incredible miracle. Can you imagine seeing a man that cannot walk, stand up, grab his mat, and walk out of that house?! Wow. What a beautiful example of Jesus’ love and power. 

When we read this story, I often hear the teaching about the friend on the mat. Sometimes we are the friend on the mat & we need our community to carry us. Sometimes we are the friends carrying the mat and we need to take action in faith to bring our friend to Jesus. But here’s something I had never noticed before…

The cost of hospitality.

Jesus performed an incredible miracle in this home. If the owner of this home had not been willing to invite Jesus in - they wouldn’t have been able to witness this incredible miracle. But, it appears, there was a cost.

These friends dug a human-sized hole in this roof! 

Talk about the cost of hospitality - that seems outrageous. Think of the damage to this home. I thought to myself: Maybe there is something that I don’t understand about these roofs. Perhaps they had little hatches that were easily moveable. But the more research I did - the more it appeared that this would have been just as damaging as I had initially thought. The roof would have likely been a mud and thatch roof. It certainly could be repaired - but these friends would have dug through dry grass and mud to create a hole big enough to lower their friend through!

Inviting Jesus into this home came with a cost. However - it also came with witnessing an incredible miracle. 

What do you think - was the cost worth it?