As family and friends come home for the holidays, our homes and churches should resemble Jesus’ house, with a place for everyone.
Last month, I wrote about Jesus’ homecoming in Capernaum (Mark 2:1-12). So many people filled his house that there was no room left at the table, in the living room, or even at the door. So, some party crashers cut a hole in Jesus’ roof to get in. I wrote:
Jesus is just in the middle of a sermon when he hears footsteps and scuffling on the roof. Imagine the racket and the dust and the roofing materials everywhere—then this man comes down through the hole on a stretcher. Jesus looks at the mess they’ve made of his home, his sanctuary. He thinks of the carpenter’s tools he’s going to need to use again to repair the damage and he says, “Oh, man—I forgive you!”
As folks gather in our churches and homes this holiday season, we may need to offer a little forgiveness. They’re going to bring their messy lives with them, that’s for sure. And we need to welcome them anyway.
Religious People React
As your home or church becomes a place of radical welcome, not everybody will like it. You might have some conservative guests who judge you for accepting the messiness of some people’s lives. If that’s the case, you’re in good company. The religious people don’t like it when Jesus does this. Verses 6-7 say:
Now some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts, “Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
Jesus’ hyper-religious guests had their reasons to oppose what Jesus was doing in his own house. Religious people today are going to grumble about what Jesus is doing in his own church as well.
In Jesus’s day, they were concerned about blasphemy and whether Jesus had the authority to forgive sins. They believed that suffering was because of God’s judgment on a person. Remember a different situation, where they asked, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” When Jesus forgave sin, they believed he was interrupting God’s judgment. The religious people would rather feel self-righteously smug about their own lack of suffering than to have someone’s suffering ended by forgiveness.
Today’s religious people also react against forgiveness. “Hey—you can’t do that!” they say when we welcome messy people into our churches. They would rather keep “those people” and their mess outside the church doors. It’s easier, that way. But that’s not what coming home for the holidays is about.
Coming Home to Jesus
Returning home for the holidays should be about filling your house and the church house with all the people and all their mess. This is why Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30,
“Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
The holidays are about a reunion with Jesus, regardless of your burden. More than that, it’s about coming home to Jesus specifically because of your burden. He doesn’t say, “Come to me, all you who are doing just fine and thriving, and I will give you a great worship service with a delicious potluck dinner.” Instead, he invites those who are burdened. This is the mission of the Church—to open the doors so wide that nobody has to knock a hole in the roof.
Deconstruction
Jesus hears the religious people complaining about this openness. He hears their theological arguments. He realizes that devout people can argue theology until they are blue in the face—because you can never prove theological points. It’s all a matter of, “What I believe is better than what you believe!”
You may have heard of the deconstruction movement, where many Evangelicals are rethinking aspects of their faith. Deconstruction happens when people try to get to Jesus, but the crowd of theologians gets in the way. People struggle with the things they’ve been taught that they have a difficult time believing. They see the black eyes that hypocritical Christians have given the church. And they have suffered from their own religious trauma.
All of these things contribute to keeping people away from Jesus. Deconstruction happens when people want to get to God, but the Church gets in the way. So, they get a ladder, climb up to the roof, and begin to deconstruct. When people feel crowded out, people to break a hole in the roof to get to the Savior.
It’s the same today as it was back then. We like to argue about who’s in and who’s out, who’s righteous and who’s sinning. But Jesus says, “Everybody’s in—and if they’re sinning, that’s even more reason for them to be in! And if they are sinning, that’s for me to forgive (even without them asking for forgiveness)! But it’s not for you to judge—because it’s my house, not yours. It’s your job to make room so they can come in.”
Real-World Problem-Solving
So, Jesus decides to defeat theologians and critics alike, with real-world problem-solving on this man’s behalf. Verses 8-12a say:
At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves, and he said to them, “Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and take your mat and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— “I say to you, stand up, take your mat, and go to your home.” And he stood up and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them…
Jesus hears the religious people complaining today as well. And honestly, Jesus cares far less about our theological arguments than he cares about real-world problem-solving on people’s behalf. Whenever Jesus talks about God judging people, it isn’t for what they did or didn’t believe—it is for what they did or didn’t do as a result of what they said they believed.
Jesus is completely disinterested in theological arguments about who’s in and who’s out, about who God is judging and who God is blessing. Instead, Jesus is interested in whether you’re helping people take up their beds and walk. He cares about whether your church is the kind of home worth coming home to, for the holidays. He wants his house to be where people don’t have to hide the way they are, to fit in. Jesus wants your home to be a place of welcome and healing.
Dig Deeper
At the same time, I challenge you to dig deeper. Find the hidden needs in your community. Who are the marginalized people? The discouraged, disenfranchised, disproportionately discriminated against? Who are the people you’ve stepped on, stepped over, and stepped away from? If you think about it, they’re probably the same ones you’ve had to just put up with—those who make you feel put out and put upon. These are the ones you’ve put down from time to time because they’re the ones poking holes in your roof. But Jesus wants the mess they make to be your clue that they need healing.
Jesus wants you to put things right. He wants you to forgive their mess, without them ever asking for that forgiveness. He wants you to heal them, without them ever asking for it. He wants you to quit arguing their worthiness and turn instead to real-world problem-solving. He wants his house to be a house of healing.
The Results of Healing
In the twelfth verse of Mark 2, the Gospel writer gives the result of this miracle in Jesus’s house:
…They were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
Do you want to see God glorified in your home and in your church? Do you want the community to see what God is doing and say, “We’ve never seen anything like this?” Do what Jesus did. Make your house a place of forgiveness and healing.
Remember—there was more than one person blessed there that day. Oh, there was the man Jesus forgave and healed (as if he wasn’t enough). But don’t forget, he came with four friends. For every life you change, there are others whose life that person touches. The ripples go out from one life to four more lives, and on and on until the whole community sees what God is doing among you. This is the mission of the church.
Home for the Holidays: A Place for Everyone
As the holiday season gets into full swing, take a moment to consider what kind of home or church you’re welcoming your guests to visit. Does it resemble Jesus’s house—where messiness is welcomed, and healing is available? Or is it a house that keeps people waiting on the outside, never quite able to get in? I pray that when your people come home for the holidays, they find it like Jesus’s house—with a place for everyone.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In