Entertaining Angels

 Read Hebrews 13

We made it. We have read and studied and tried to put words into practice for 13 weeks. Now, we come to the author’s concluding remarks. Within them are these words that many know so well.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

We remember that one but there is a bunch of other counsel set astride of this familiar verse.  I will address them in a Kiplinger style.

Love one another and don’t stop.

Show hospitality to strangers.

Remember and empathize with those in prison.

Honor your marriage.

Don’t get sucked into loving money. I remember Zig Ziglar saying something along the lines of money isn’t everything, but life is easier with it than without it. He also said that money can’t buy you happiness but everyone wants to find out for themselves.

Do you remember what we have already learned in the area of money?

Is money the root of all evil? No.

Is the love of money the root of all evil? No.

Is the love of money the root of all sorts of evil? Yes.  If it were the only source of evil, eliminating money might do some real good. Focusing on not loving money will reap benefits but won’t eliminate all the evil that we encounter.

So, the counsel is clear. Don’t get caught in the money-loving trap. God knows what you need.

Know that the Lord will not leave or forsake you.

Know that the Lord does help us and we are not to be afraid.

Remember that other people can only kill your body. The Lord has your spirit secured with him forever. OBTW, we get a new body.  Who can say, Bonus?!?

Consider those leaders who shared their faith with you. Pick a good model or two from among them as practical examples of living our faith and putting the words of our Master into practice.

Watch out for strange teachings. They are out there and beckon you to abandon grace and embrace ceremony. God is calling you to him. Don’t get off course.

Back in the day, these might have been some Jesus Plus teachings. You can have your salvation in Jesus but you must attend 75% of the festivals and make a couple of goat offerings to make you complete.

Today we get: Go with your feelings. Stay in your comfort zone. It is all about you.

The only sacrifice required for our right standing with God was made in the blood of Jesus. That was tough to swallow long ago but today we don’t care much where our salvation comes from as long as we can continue sinning.

That’s what much of the modern church is selling. You don’t need to change. The Bible needs to catch up with modern times We have already been told if you reject Jesus, you have no place to go..

Remember that the consummation of all life, death, our history, our victories and our miscues, and the love of God the Father comes together in the person of Jesus.

In response to the great love we know in Christ Jesus, let us continually make a sacrifice, an offering of praise. We are thankful people. We are grateful people. We proclaim the Lord’s goodness. We proclaim his salvation.

Know that there is more to come, including Zion, the Holy City.

We profess that Jesus is Lord!

Don’t forget to do the good deeds that God has set aside for you. Do them without the burden of wondering if you are going to heaven or hell.

In our right standing, we can do good not hoping that it gets us in right standing with God or gets us to heaven, but in response to the great love of God that comes through Christ Jesus. We can finally do what we were made to do.

Again, we see instruction to have confidence in our leaders. We should submit to their authority. It should be a pleasure to lead us, so much so that serving as a leader is not a burden but a blessing.

The letter wraps up with a request for prayer for the author and his fellow believers who were surely spreading the word of God to Europe. The letter appears to have come from Rome, but we can’t say with certainty.

If I had to venture a guess—I don’t but I will—then I would say that the letter was written by one or more of Paul’s traveling companions. Similar syntax—which is not a tariff on transgression—suggests Paul or Luke, but again we can only guess.

As we noted in the beginning, this book made it into our canonized Bibles. Whether we know the author or where it was written does not interfere with the fact that this book written mainly to the Hebrew people was included in the Bible we have today because that’s exactly where God wanted it.

The author includes a blessing to his readers as he wraps up this epistle. And that brings us to the end of this journey, but I am not quite ready to relinquish my narrative on this chapter.

As we consider the directions packed into this final chapter, let’s consider some collateral information with one of these directives.  Show hospitality to strangers. This was part of the Hebrew culture that even preceded the law.

Look at the syntax that we see in our translations. It says do not forget to show hospitality. That means that the readers already knew to do this. The author just reminds them not to let this practice slip away.

Do you remember reading about when God destroyed Sodom? We think of Lot’s wife turning back and turning into a pillar of salt, but do we know why God destroyed Sodom?

Their sin was grave. It was ugly. What was it?

Most would say it was the homosexual practices, and that’s surely among the things that God despised, but was there more?

Consider the experience of the visiting angels. Where was the hospitality among the townspeople? They were not hospitable. They were hostile to strangers.

Among the sins that today many think are no longer sins or think that this sin is the Mother of All Sins was the absence of hospitality.

Lot knew what God expected. He took in the strangers—the angels. The culture of the town rebelled against God in all areas, including hospitality.

Hebrews reminds us that we are to take in strangers and that some of our guests may be angels. We may not know if they are angels or not. Sometimes we may, but the counsel to continue this traditional practice comes with this addendum.

It should not surprise us. Consider the words of Jesus as he told the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats.

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

When we help someone who is struggling in this world, Jesus tells us that it is the same as doing it for him. When we take in a stranger, it’s the same as doing it for Jesus, and it could be one of his angels as well.

As we conclude, remember:

God loves us and saves us.

It’s all about Jesus.

Jesus is greater than anything or any instruction that you have received so far.

So, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.

Get rid of the junk in your life that leads you away from him.

Take his yoke.

Learn from him.

Receive his rest.

Receive his peace.

Put his words into practice.

We will be doing our good works—not for salvation—but for Jesus himself.

Sometimes when we practice hospitality, we might entertain—let’s say host—an angel or two along the way.

Amen.