The Gospel Comes with a Housekey
By Rosaria Butterfield
In Matthew chapter 25, Jesus instructs His disciples about the coming of the Lord. Jesus says that the Lord will bless those who truly were His followers saying, “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.” Puzzled, Christ’s disciples wonder at what time they did any of those things for Him. Then he assures them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” This is Christ’s word for us on hospitality.
The Gospel Comes with a Housekey is a book about what practicing hospitality as a Christian looks like. “Radically ordinary hospitality is this,” Butterfield writes. “Using your Christian home in a daily way that seeks to make strangers neighbors and neighbors family of God.” Butterfield challenges us to use our homes as a tool to share the Gospel.
Imagine if your house could be a safe space for your neighbors to bring their burdens and their broken hearts! She shows us how to do this in her book. It doesn’t have to be complicated, and it most certainly does not require affluence, as Butterfield explains. Instead, her admonition is to “Start anywhere. But do start.”
