When You're Strange*

Instead of posting a list of my favorite books I read this year, I though I would share with you the ones that drew several articles out of me. These are the books that made me have the most reflections. I actually read this book at the end of 2012. It is convicting in many unsuspecting ways, and will always leave an impact on me. I've written a full review of it here, which was one of my most read posts of all. In her book, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert, Rosaria Champagne Butterfield emphasizes the role of hospitality for the Christian. Several times throughout her book, I read about her passion to “meet the stranger at the gate.” Butterfield’s words are very convicting when she shows how well the gay and lesbian community do this. In some ways they put the church to shame. They welcome the outcast. There is no sense of them “condescending” to help you, because they recognize their own status of strangeness. They seek lost people. As I have been meditating on this, I can’t help but think of Jesus walking with the two men on the road to Emmaus. Scripture tells us that “Jesus himself drew near and went with them” (Luke 24:15 b, emphasis mine). They weren’t seeking out the risen Christ; they were on their way to a town just outside of Jerusalem. You know the story, for a time their eyes were kept from recognizing Jesus. He asks them about their conversation, and they really think he is an outsider for not knowing the recent events. When they explained how the One that they hoped would be their Redeemer was crucified, and was now reported missing and alive by angels, Christ condescends once more to explain to them how this Redeemer has fulfilled all Scripture. As magnificent as it is to have the Sermon on the Mount recorded, I greedily wish I had these words spoken by Christ. I believe that is the job of our pastors every Sabbath—to expound how a particular section of Scripture points directly to Christ and his redemptive work, to give us the gospel afresh in each passage of Scripture, to open our eyes, revealing our great Savior within the sacred pages of Scripture. But back to my story. Jesus, the stranger, gets invited to supper. He condescends to their invitation. But when he comes to the table, Jesus changes from the receiver of hospitality to the Host himself as he takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them. That’s when the eyes of these men were opened to see Jesus Christ for who he really was, the risen Lord and Savior, God himself. Jesus Christ is a stranger to fallen man. We do not seek him (Rom. 3:11), and we certainly do not discover the gospel truth by searching within ourselves. No, left to ourselves we serve a theology of glory—glory to ourselves! But our loving, graceful God condescended to manhood, arriving in this world as a baby in a manger. He grew into a Man of Sorrows as he lived righteously, taking on the burden of our sin. His path was as an outsider, rejected by his own people. He gave his life on the cross to propitiate God’s wrath against our sin, and to impute his own perfect righteousness on his beloved. He offers his own flesh and blood as our means of grace. The Stranger became the Host of the New Age. Because of this, we should know our own status of strangeness. We were once alienated from God, and now we are lavishly given the inheritance of his own Son! And yet, while we already have a status in the age to come, we are not yet out of this age of the cross. How can we not be looking for the stranger at the gate? We should be defined as a hospitable community, drawing near to the lost and sharing the great news. We should be the ones welcoming the outcast, because we were the outcast. We have received the Ultimate hospitality, and are now equipped to reciprocate his great kindness. There will be a great feast when our Lord returns, how many guests have we invited to his table?   *I'm on a song title kick, what can I say? This one is from The Doors. Here are some more reflections that came from this book: Long Hair Freaky People Need Not Apply, Because We Are All Unlikely Converts.