The Welcome Mat

By Cheri Cowell –

Hospitality is big business today. Businesses even hire outside firms to help them offer better hospitality. These experts look at everything from the colors of the walls to the scents in the air. They train people on the best practices and explain that it is often the little things that say, “You are important here.” The Temple was to be God’s welcome mat to the whole world. Through it, and the people He chose to oversee it, all the nations of the earth were to be welcomed into God’s presence. Isaiah recorded God’s hospitality training manual for the temple leaders in chapter 56 verses 4-8, but over the years that system had been corrupted. Instead of welcoming people, the temple system had become a way to exclude people, and Jesus was angry about it. Passover was the time when all the nations would be gathered in the city, and the temple should have had the welcome mat out. Instead, it put up barriers and Jesus could no longer take it.

Jesus quotes Isaiah and Jeremiah in this passage in Mark, passages that the temple leaders would have known well. They knew what they were doing was wrong, but when confronted they chose to blame the messenger rather than look at their own sin. When reading this passage it is easy for us to point fingers at the temple leaders, but the question remains for us: How welcoming are our houses of prayer? Are peoples of all nations, social and economic statuses, educational levels, physical abilities, and religious affiliations welcomed by us? Do we make it easy for those who are different to join in and feel a part of our family?

“On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’” The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching. When evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city” (Mark 11:15-19 NIV).

See also Isaiah 56:4-8. Ask Him to help you become aware this Easter season of those who may need the hand of hospitality extended to them in the name of Jesus, the Messiah.

PRAYER: Dear God, forgive us for turning Your house into a den of thieves, stealing away Your intended purpose for Your people to be the welcome mat for all to come to You.