Daily Message 20th April 2020

Jesus in our homes

Yesterday’s gospel reading was about risen Jesus encountering disciples in a house.

It made me think of the number of times Jesus’ is found in a house: teaching, eating and drinking, healing.

And the number of times he refers to houses or domestic scenes:

• ·        How to build a solid house.
• ·        The best place to put your lights.
• ·        How to avoid being broken into.
• ·        Don’t get locked out by the owner.
• ·        If you lose something search the whole house until you find it.
• ·        Don’t treat your home as a castle and ignore the poor.

Jesus was born in a guest house – in fact not even in the living quarters. He was born probably in a downstairs room where animals were kept, with sleeping quarters on the floor above.

·         While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷ and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. (Lk 2)

Later, they probably moved into the living quarters of the house.

·        ¹¹ On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. (Matt 2)

Jesus never owned his own house, but was often welcomed into other people’s houses.  Can you imagine if he had?  I’ve just got to go back to Capernaum to check on the house, or make sure the tenants are paying the rent, make sure it hasn’t been broken into, tidy up the garden.

So my question today is: Where is our security? In bricks and mortar?  I ask myself. We live in a bigger house than most, but it’s not ours and in a few years’ time when I retire we’ll have to find our own house.  When we did buy a flat as an investment a few years it immediately brought a whole load more worries and cares with it. So I ask myself, “Where is my security? Where is my hope for the future?” I don’t want to be like the man in the parable who built bigger and bigger barns to store his crops so he could enjoy a comfortable retirement, and then died.

There is nothing wrong with owning our homes – it's enshrined in Universal Declaration of Human Rights; nothing wrong with making sensible plans for the future,  but let’s just check ourselves to make sure that our trust is in the right place.

Psalm 91:2  I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’