After a half day of walking, they enter the city, to coincidentally meet Abraham’s nephew, Lot, who urges them… desperately urges, it seemed to them… to come to his house. “No,” they reply, “It’s a nice day, we’d like to stay in the town courtyard..” “NO!... um, I mean, it’s better that you do not. Please, I have some fine food.” So they agree.
That night a mob of men pound on the door to rape them, Lot tries to put them off, but the mob is insistent. They will not allow a visitor enter their town without being abused. The angels looked at each other, nodded, then used their authority to blind the men and get Lot and his family out of town. They authorized for the town to be destroyed that very night.
These specific angels are mentioned again in Scriputre. In Hebrews, we are warned to “Pracitice hospitality to strangers, for some have entertained angels without knowing.”
Curiously, Jesus makes an interesting allusion to this story as well. Jesus is choosing disciples, breaking them up into pairs, and telling them to visit town after town—dirty, wandering, hungry, without any sign of wealth, perhaps without even shoes. They are to enter the town looking and being impoverished, from head to toe. When they enter into the town, they are to proclaim a new nation, a nation of God’s righteousness and to heal the sick in that town.
The question, says Jesus, is whether they will be welcomed or not. Will they be helped and granted food or shelter? Or will they be ignored or even abused? If they are not helped, says Jesus, “Wipe the dust off your feet as a judgement against them. I tell you, on the final day, it will be harder on them than the town of Sodom.”
When Jesus sent his disciples to go out and do evangelism, he did not send them with tracts and ties. Rather he sent them with the boldest message: poverty. Are you a town that helps the poor or harms the poor? Are you an Abraham or a Sodom?
On the final day, each person in the world is divided between Abraham and Sodoms. “When I was hungry, “ Jesus says to the Abrahams, “you gave me something to eat. When I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. When I was naked, you clothed me. When you did this to the least of these, my brothers, you did so to me.”
Who are these brothers? The disciples, the messengers sent by Jesus to our town in need. They came not just to preach, but to test us. Would we help them? Would we be generous?
And if we did not, Jesus says to us, “When I was a stranger, you didn’t let me in. When I was sick and in prison, you never came to me. When you did not do this to the least of these, my brothers, you did not do it to me.”
And these Sodoms receive the judgment of Sodom.
No comments:
Post a Comment