PHILONEXIA

“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”  (Romans 12:9-18 NIV)

There's a two-word verse tucked in the middle of Romans 12 behind which is hidden one of my favorite Greek terms. The verse says, "Practice hospitality." The Greek word is philonexia. Here's my working definition: "to pursue the stranger with the love of a family and make them feel at home." It's not really about people you know, but people you don't yet know. And it's not about being an extroverted person who never meets a stranger.

Hospitality is a deeply personal posture of openness toward all people. Our natural tendency is to fear strangers and keep to our own. To follow Jesus is to become open and curious (and, of course, wise and discerning) when it comes to strangers. You may remember this charge in the letter to the Hebrews: "Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it" (13:2).

The one who shows hospitality is often in for the bigger blessing. Then there's the famous [post-resurrection] Emmaus Road story where the two disciples invite the stranger into their home after the long walk and He turns out to be Jesus Himself! Wow! He did say in His parable of the sheep and the goats, depicting the final judgment, "I was a stranger and You welcomed Me" (Matthew. 25:35). It's why St. Benedict put this instruction in his rule of life: "Let all guests who arrive be received as Christ."

Philonexia! It's one of the hallmark qualities of Holy Spirit–filled people. May it become a new watchword in our hearts, homes, and churches.  

-- Excerpted from “Wake-Up Call” with J. D. Walt

#6101

ON THE ROAD TO EMMAUS

Jesus said to the two walking on the road to Emmaus, “‘How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter His glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself."  (Luke 24:25-27 NIV)

Well, what do you know, [the resurrected] Christ conducted a Bible class. He led the Emmaus bound duo through an Old Testament survey course, from the writings of Moses (Genesis through Deuteronomy) into the messages of Isaiah, Amos, and the others. He turned the Emmaus trail into a biblical timeline, pausing to describe… the Red Sea rumbling?... Jericho tumbling?... King David stumbling? Of special import to Jesus was what the Scriptures said “concerning Himself.” His face watermarks more Old Testament stories than you might imagine. Jesus is Noah, saving humanity from disaster; Abraham, the father of a new nation; Isaac, placed on the altar by his father; Joseph, sold for a bag of silver; Moses, calling slaves to freedom; Joshua, pointing out the promised land.

Jesus took them through the writing of “Moses and all the prophets.” Can you imagine Christ quoting Old Testament Scripture? Did Isaiah 53 sound this way: "I was wounded and crushed for your sins. I was beaten that you might have peace" (v. 5)? Or Isaiah 28: "I am placing a foundation stone in Jerusalem. It is firm, a tested precious cornerstone that is safe to build on" (v. 16)? Did He pause and give the Emmaus students a wink, saying, "I'm the stone Isaiah described"? We don't know His words, but we know their impact. The two disciples felt "our hearts burning within us while He talked" (Luke 24:32 NIV). 

-- Adapted from Max Lucado in “Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear”  

#6100

THE BREATH OF NEW LIFE

"[Jesus] breathed on [His disciples] and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.'"  (John 20:22,23)

When Jesus appeared to His disciples after His resurrection, He brought them more than proof that He was indeed alive -- He gave them new life. As Jesus breathes on His disciples, He is giving them the Holy Spirit. This is the ‘ruach’, the breath, the life, the Spirit of God filling them up and changing them. Something new is expected of them in light of this Spirit. They are to be new people, new creations. This act of breathing the Holy Spirit out brings new life for the disciples, one in which they follow a resurrected Christ who is Life, who is Spirit, who is Breath. With each breath, we too can take in the glory of God and be reminded of the Spirit that fills us and sustains us and changes us.

-- Carla Barnhill in “The Green Bible Devotional” 

#5831

EYEWITNESSES TO THE RESURRECTED CHRIST

“Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you -- unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place. I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and He was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, He was seen by more than 500 of His followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then He was seen by James and later by all the apostles. Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw Him.”  (1 Corinthians 15:1-8 NLT)

Modern attempts to get away from the sheer historical facts of the Resurrection are, at best, based on a total misunderstanding.  The whole Bible proclaims the need for, and the achievement of, a salvation that will remake creation, and it is just such a salvation, at once supernatural and historical, that was won on Easter Day.  If the Resurrection narratives are [merely] a subtle way of convincing us that God still loves us, or that there is a life beyond death, they must be reckoned among the oddest and most ill-conceived stories ever written. 

-- Michael Sadgrove & Tom Wright 

#5830

MY EASTER QUESTION: WHY GALILEE? – Part 3 of 3

That first Easter, nobody actually saw Jesus rise from the dead.  They saw Him after He had risen.  They didn't appear to Him; He appeared to them.  Us.  In the Bible, the "proof" of the resurrection is not the absence of Jesus' body from the tomb; it's the presence of Jesus to His followers.  The gospel message of the resurrection is not first, "Though we die, we shall one day return to life," it is, "Though we were dead, Jesus returned to us." 

If it was difficult to believe that Jesus was raised from the dead, it must have been almost impossible to believe that He was raised and returned to us.  The result of Easter, the product of the Resurrection of Christ is the church -- a community of people with nothing more to convene us than that the risen Christ came back to us.  That's our only claim, our only hope.  He came back to Galilee.  He came back to us.

In life, in death, in any life beyond death, this is our great hope and our great commission.  Hallelujah!  Go!  Tell!  The risen Christ came back to [your town], uh I mean Galilee.

-- Adapted from a sermon entitled “He Came Back… To Us!” by William Willimon

#5829

 

IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH

"To them Jesus presented Himself alive after His passion by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days, and speaking of the kingdom of God."  (Acts 1:3)

When people say, "I'll be there in spirit" what they really mean is "I won't be there."   When modern people say of Jesus Christ, "The true meaning of the myth of the resurrection is that Jesus lives on in our hearts and thoughts" what they really mean is "Jesus is dead as a doornail."  The New Testament has no patience with such sentimental claptrap.   It bluntly denies that Jesus of Nazareth "lives on in our memories" in that watery, sentimental… way of speaking.   It asserts rather that Jesus of Nazareth rose in a glorified body that could eat fish, be touched, and break bread.   This seems terribly crass, crude, and physical to a world that wants to reduce all "spirituality" to odorless, colorless, platonic ideas.   But then the world tends to do this because it fears the biggest and dirtiest secret of all: death, which is a crass, crude and physical thing.   Jesus came to be with us in spirit and in truth.   And so, when He rose on Easter, He did not rise merely "in spirit" but in truth as well.   God defeated the stink, rot, and worms of death, not just the "idea" of it. And He proved it by saying, "See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; handle Me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have" (Luke 24:39).   And because He really did rise bodily, we shall too, if we remain in Him. 

-- Mark Shea and Jeff Cavins 

#5582

WHY THE SCARS?

“While they were still talking about this, Jesus Himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at My hands and My feet. It is I Myself! Touch Me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.’ When He had said this, He showed them His hands and feet.”  (Luke 24:36-40 NIV)

One detail of the Easter stories has always intrigued me: Why did Jesus keep the scars from His crucifixion? Presumably He could have had any resurrected body He wanted, yet He chose one identifiable mainly by scars that could be seen and touched. Why?

I believe the story of Easter would be incomplete without those scars on the hands, the feet, and the side of Jesus… The scars are, to Him, an emblem of life on our planet, a permanent reminder of those days of confinement and suffering.

I take hope in Jesus’ scars. From the perspective of heaven, they represent the most horrible event that has ever happened in the history of the universe. Even that event, though -- the crucifixion -- Easter has turned into a memory. Because of Easter, I can hope that the tears we shed, the blows we receive, the emotional pain, the heartache over lost friends and loved ones, all these will become memories, like Jesus’ scars. Scars never completely go away, but neither do they hurt any longer. We will have re-created bodies, a re-created heaven and earth. We will have a new start, an Easter start. 

-- Philip Yancey in “The Jesus I Never Knew”

#5332