Matthew 25:35: I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in.

The gospel is a story of hospitality. Through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, God brings us from the outside to the inside. Jesus comes in order to make room for all of us in God’s family. He comes to make room for us in God. Jesus comes as the Host, showing us hospitality, as He does at this table.

But Jesus also comes as a guest. Jesus comes to His own, John says, and His own did not receive Him. He comes as a guest, a poor and marginalized stranger, and the Jews refused to welcome Him. When the disciples went out into the land on their first mission, Jesus told them not to take anything with them. They took on the role of strangers, poor travelers, so that they’d confront the towns of Judea with the decision of whether to receive them or not. Anyone who received the disciples received Jesus; anyone who rejected the disciples rejected Jesus.

That didn’t stop when Jesus left this earth. He still sends His representatives out, forcing on us the decision to receive them or not. Jesus comes to us in the guise of the hungry, the poor, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned. He comes and confronts us with a decision to welcome Him or not. And when we receive the least of His brothers, we receive Jesus. What we do to the poor, the hungry, the naked, the stranger is what we do to Jesus.

This means that hospitality can take on a sacramental quality. It is not only an act of generosity and kindness and mercy, but it may become an encounter with God Himself. The writer to the Hebrews says that by showing hospitality some have entertained angels unawares. But Jesus says it even more strongly: By showing hospitality, we are entertaining Jesus unawares.

Again this table sets the pattern for us. Here Jesus is our Host, inviting us to His banquet. Here Jesus is our guest, inviting us to receive Him in the humble forms of bread and wine. And as we receive Him in faith here, this ordinary bread and wine become means for an encounter with Jesus. We receive Him in receiving bread and wine.

What we do at this table on the Lord’s day, we must continue to do on Monday and Tuesday and throughout the week. Receive Jesus here, and receive him everyday, as He comes to you as hungry, thirsty, naked, poor; receive Him as He comes to you as the stranger.