Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus by Ann Spangler

Author:Ann Spangler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Array
Publisher: Zondervan

Ancient Hospitality

A visit to Israel will quickly convince you that hospitality in this ancient land must often have been a matter of life and death. Imagine taking a short hike in the middle of the day in summer. It’s ninety degrees in the shade — but there is no shade, only an endless rocky landscape dotted by a few scraggly shrubs. Now imagine that you can’t climb into an air-conditioned car to get out of the searing heat. Nor can you reach for an ice-cold bottle of water to slake your thirst because grocery stores from which to purchase bottled water haven’t yet been invented. Not only that, but the road on which you are walking is frequented by robbers who make their living off vulnerable travelers. But, thank God, there is something in this rugged country that works in your favor. It is hospitality. You can approach any of the residents of this ancient land for food, water, and shelter, and they will gladly provide it.

This same kind of “extreme hospitality” has been the practice around the Middle East and much of Africa for thousands of years. A few years ago when Lois traveled to Uganda with friends, hospitality greeted them at every turn. Whether visiting simple concrete homes, humble congregations, or dirt-floored schools, they were offered the best available food, which might only be bananas, boiled eggs, peanuts, or a bottle of soda. More than once their hosts told their children to run outside and catch dinner. Darting away, the children would return holding a prized chicken that moments earlier had been roaming about in the yard. A feast of roast chicken, plantains, yams, pineapple, and papaya would ensue. Everywhere they went, they feasted, even though at times they were the only ones eating because of the scarcity of food.

When they expressed their awe (and discomfort) at the generosity of their hosts, their African friends explained that hospitality is so highly valued in their culture that they could not possibly consider withholding it. They later discovered that many east Africans end up impoverishing themselves after hosting lavish family celebrations and festive meals. Still, because of the generosity of their African friends, Lois and her friends had the chance to taste the kind of hospitality practiced in Eastern cultures from biblical times until today.

Understanding such customs sheds light on a familiar scene from the Gospels. When Jesus commissioned his disciples to preach in the surrounding villages, he gave them instructions that sound radical to us: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff — no bread, no bag, no money in your belts . . . And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them” (Mark 6:8, 11). Taking this passage literally, some Christians have gone with little or no money to places that don’t have the same high regard for hospitality that existed in Jesus’ day. And even though God can

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