Welcome Like Jesus
Pete Stearns | January 23, 2022
We hope this guide will help you take the good news you hear today into your daily lives.
This week, we focus on our value of “welcoming who Jesus welcomed.” We’ll examine Mark 2:13-17 and see that while true hospitality—accepting all people, especially those on the margins of society—can be costly, it is one of the best ways to “make Jesus famous” within our spheres of influence.
Going Deeper: Praying The Scriptures
This week, spend some time alone with God reflecting on this passage:
While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Mark 2:15-17
Listen: In a quiet place, read the passage slowly. Pay attention to any words or phrases that jump out. What resonates with you? Is there anything you find yourself resisting?
Locate: Re-read the passage, this time putting yourself in the story. Who are you, or where are you, in the story? What do you experience or sense?
Invitation: As you read the passage a third time, what invitation or challenge do you feel called to respond to?
Reflect: “Everyone is welcome at God’s table. In our practice of the Christian life, we need the company of diverse people at our dinner tables and at the Lord’s Table. People who are different from us help us experience the Lord’s presence in new ways.” (The Life with God Bible)
In prayer this week, ask God to position you to welcome who Jesus welcomed, even if it means moving outside your comfort zone. Pray for the Holy Spirit to bring to mind specific people in your life to “invite to your table,” whether that means to a meal, to church, or in some other way.
