Browsing through the doormats displayed in a local shop, I noted the messages stamped on their surfaces. “Hello!” “Home” with a heart for the “o.” And the more customary one I chose, “Welcome.” Putting it in place at home, I checked my heart. Was my home really welcoming the way God desires it to be? To a child selling chocolate for a school project? A neighbour in need? A family member from out of town who called on the spur of the moment?
In Mark 9, Jesus moves from the Mount of Transfiguration where Peter, James and John stood in awe of His holy presence (Mark 9:1-13), to healing a possessed boy with a father who’d lost hope (vv. 14-29). Jesus then offered private lessons to the disciples concerning His upcoming death (vv. 30-32). They missed His point—badly (vv. 33-34 ). In response, Jesus took a child atop His lap saying, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me” (v. 37). The word welcome here means to receive and accept as a guest. Jesus wants His disciples to welcome all, even the undervalued and the inconvenient as if we were welcoming Him.
I thought of my welcome mat and wondered how I extend His love to others. It starts by realising we are each welcomed by Jesus as a treasured child. Will I permit Him to then lead me to others and welcome them in the way He desires?
By Elisa Morgan
REFLECT & PRAY
When and how did you first experience Jesus’ welcome? What effect does this have on the way you welcome others?
Dear Jesus, please make Your home in me as I make mine in You.
Prior to His death and resurrection, Jesus’ disciples believed He’d be the one to overthrow Rome and set up the kingdom the Jews had longed for. On the way to Capernaum, they’d debated who’d be greatest in that kingdom. Christ, however, turned their expectations on their heads. Jesus isn’t interested in building a kingdom that looks like Rome (John 18:36). He modelled for the disciples—and for us—that His kingdom grows from the soil of servanthood. And rather than conspire with the powerful, Christ’s kingdom welcomes the weak, the disenfranchised, the passed over, the oppressed, and the poor.
And lest His disciples get the idea that this is just Jesus’ own idea of heaven’s kingdom, He points out that the Father is the one who set the idea in place. By welcoming those deemed undesirable, we welcome Jesus and His Father. His kingdom is one of servanthood in weakness, not domination in power.
Jed Ostoich
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