sermons
Radical Hospitality
Radical Hospitality as Justice Work
Lydia Shiu
Jan 26, 2025
Mark 11:12-25
12 The next day, after leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry.
13 From far away, he noticed a fig tree in leaf, so he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing except leaves, since it wasn’t the season for figs.
14 So he said to it, “No one will ever again eat your fruit!” His disciples heard this.
15 They came into Jerusalem. After entering the temple, he threw out those who were selling and buying there. He pushed over the tables used for currency exchange and the chairs of those who sold doves.
16 He didn’t allow anyone to carry anything through the temple.
17 He taught them, “Hasn’t it been written, My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations?[a] But you’ve turned it into a hideout for crooks.”[b]
18 The chief priests and legal experts heard this and tried to find a way to destroy him. They regarded him as dangerous because the whole crowd was enthralled at his teaching.
19 When it was evening, Jesus and his disciples went outside the city.
20 Early in the morning, as Jesus and his disciples were walking along, they saw the fig tree withered from the root up.
21 Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look how the fig tree you cursed has dried up.”
22 Jesus responded to them, “Have faith in God!
23 I assure you that whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea’—and doesn’t waver but believes that what is said will really happen—it will happen.
24 Therefore I say to you, whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you will receive it, and it will be so for you.
25 And whenever you stand up to pray, if you have something against anyone, forgive so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your wrongdoings.”[c]
Let me pray for us.
Holy and Loving God, anoint us with your spirit, let our hearts be filled with your presence now, as we meditate on your word, and listen to our hearts. Give us your grace that we may set aside all that jumbles our minds, and tune our hearts to you. Maybe like the beginning of an orchestra performance, when the instruments tune with one another, even as it starts out like a random cacophony of noises, settle us in, to your perfect tone and sound, which is love, and justice, and mercy, and goodness, tune our hearts to that song I pray. Amen.
This was one of the first stories from the Bible that came to my mind as we began to think about the Radical Hospitality sermon series. Maybe I was just thinking of Bible stories with tables. As Ivy and Steve have been saying in the last few weeks, this is NOT Hospitality, or is maybe one but isn’t the main or best way to do hospitality. That’s not what we’re talking about.
And I’m not talking about THIS either. Apparently this is an AI image of Jesus flipping over the tables. Let’s just say ChatGPT didn’t write this sermon. Cause it would get it wrong, very wrong.
So what are we talking about when we say Radical Hospitality? I think our today’s scripture can show us what radical hospitality is trying to do, trying to accomplish. The WHY behind any radical hospitality.
Now, first of all, it is radical. This story is placed toward the end of the book of Mark. Elizabeth Struthers Malbon, who wrote the commentary on the Gospel of Mark in the Women’s Bible Commentary, called this portion, “The Prelude to the Passion of Jesus.”
By the way, I’m not a gatekeeper, and all my good stuff comes from this book. It’s a big textbook, textbook price too, but it’s so good. Anyways, there’s a sense that Jesus’ work and ministry intensified over time. Another New Testament scholar named, N.T. Wright says this,
“Jesus engaged in it (this flipping the tables event) only as the climax of a whole career of healing teaching, feeding, and simply loving people into God’s new life. And his action led directly to his violent death.”
I’ll be mentioning Malbon and Wright a few more times.
Trust me, I have no intention of radicalizing us to be physical or violent of any sort. So please remember that this is not a one off act of Jesus but a part of an arch of his whole life ministry and work. I do see Jesus’ anger and a resolve to a kind of “this is enough!” about it all.
The story is told in a “sandwich” style, starting with the mention of the fig tree, and then the flipping of the table, and then ending with the fig tree that intends to reinforce and amplify the middle bit with metaphor and symbolism.
The first part really is quite peculiar.
12 The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry.
13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs.
14 Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.
He wasn’t just hungry. He was hangry, where you’re so hungry that you’re angry. The text clearly says it’s
“not the season for figs”
and so like why is so mad enough to curse the little guy! So extreme! So the lesson here is, don’t let anyone go hungry. I’m kidding but not kidding. And I I know hospitality is not cooking up a storm in the kitchen, but if you don’t know what to do, and you want to do something, not a bad place to start, feed them. Okay, that’s a minor point. The major point to this fig tree sandwich, now I’m getting hungry, is that, Malbon says,
“Holy trees and holy temples were often associated in the ancient world.”
The fig tree represented the temple. Jesus was condemning the temple. Why?
Because the temple wasn’t doing what it was supposed to be doing. You see, to enter the temple, you had to pay the temple tax. The tax, it had to be paid in a particular kind of coinage, so whatever money you brought, there’s an exchange rate here. And people came from all over the area to the temple and what you imagine is right, the exchange rate right at the entrance is the worst. Everyone knows that you shouldn’t exchange your money at the airport when you land! You just use the credit card that you have most points on for travel. Well, not if you have no credit and only some cash, then you get hit with the fees. It really isn’t that different then, or today.
I remember first hearing about this story in seminary. I had grown up hearing this story with the plausible simple direct application of this story to our church, that it was to be a house of prayer, so don’t be doing business here. Like, don’t pass out your private business cards and try to get more clients at church or don’t set up a girls scouts cookies table at the entrance of the church. It’s much deeper than that. It was a whole system of exploitation, upselling, capitalizing on the poor. Another commentary said that,
“Outside doves cost as little as 3 ½ p, (I don’t know what the P stands for, I fell into internet rabbit hole in trying to figure out how much a shekel is worth in modern day but I stopped), inside they cost as much as 75p.”
That’s a ridiculous upsell. And if you brought your own doves, they would surely find something wrong with it, a blemish or whatnot, that would be unfit for sacrifice, leaving you no choice but to buy the 75 price one.
Malbon says this,
“Without the essential activities of changing secular currency for temple currency and procuring approved sacrificial animals, the temple could not serve its function as the sacrificial center for Israel. Jesus’ critique of the temple officials is steeped in Jewish prophetic tradition, echoing Isaiah and Jeremiah. Jeremiah accused the leaders of Israel of taking economic advantage of the poor and unfortunate in their overall dealings with them, then taking refuge in the temple as a robbers’ den (11:17, quoting Jer 7:11)”
One of my favorite things to do when I read the Bible, is to read the footnote! It’s like little secret gems you find!
So she’s getting this form Mark 11:17, where Jesus is explaining why he just flipped the table. He says,
“Hasn’t it been written, My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations?[b] But you’ve turned it into a hideout for crooks.”[c]
You see the [b] and [c], [b] quoting Isaiah 56:7, [c] is quoting Jer. 7:11.
Jesus is quoting the Hebrew Bible, that many of them knew, especially the popular verses by heart. It would have conjured up not only the phrase or the verse but immediately resurrected in their minds Isaiah’s imagination and vision and Jeremiah’s great teachings. It’s a cue. It’s a cross reference point. Bible Study tip, when you see a footnote saying that it’s quoting, go to that verse, and read the whole chapter.
Well that’s what I did. And I’ll just do Isaiah with you guys and I’ll finish up soon.
And you guys when I did, go and read Isaiah 56, I was like, wait, am I writing this sermon or is the sermon writing me?! You ever read something and just have to physically and audibly react to what you just read? Let me read it for us.
This is what the Lord says: I’m just going to read Isaiah 56:1-8
1“Maintain justice
and do what is right,
for my salvation is close at hand
and my righteousness will soon be revealed.
2 Blessed is the one who does this—
the person who holds it fast,
who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it,
and keeps their hands from doing any evil.”
3 Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say,
“The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.”
And let no eunuch complain,
“I am only a dry tree.”
4 For this is what the Lord says:
“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose what pleases me
and hold fast to my covenant—
5 to them I will give within my temple and its walls
a memorial and a name
better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
that will endure forever.
6 And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord
to minister to him,
to love the name of the Lord,
and to be his servants,
all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it
and who hold fast to my covenant—
7 these I will bring to my holy mountain
and give them joy in my house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house will be called
a house of prayer for all nations.”
8 The Sovereign Lord declares—
One who gathers the exiles of Israel:
“I will gather still others to them
besides those already gathered.”
It starts with,
“Maintain justice! Do what is right,”
and who are the two people groups specifically that Isaiah is talking about? Foreigners and Eunuchs.
Let no foreigner say,
“The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.”
And let no eunuch complain,
“I am only a dry tree.”
Eunuchs are Bible’s rare mentions of people of gender ambiguity or fluidity. I can’t help but think of today’s immigrants who are in fear that they will be excluded and LGBTQIA siblings who are afraid and wondering if they would even be recognized as people. They are right now saying the things that Isaiah specifically painted as God’s vision for justice in which these people will not be saying. That was really hard to say.
So when Jesus is quoting this text, saying,
“my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations,”
this is what he’s conjuring up. This is what it means for the temple, the church, to be a house of prayer for all nations. Just as Isaiah and Jeremiah had done, Jesus was critiquing the exclusionary posture of Israel. They were supposed to be the light of the world. Wright says,
“The Temple had been intended to symbolize God’s dwelling with Israel for the sake of the world; the way Jesus’ contemporaries had organized things, it had come to symbolize not God’s welcome to the nations but God’s exclusion of them.”
Look, I don’t expect nation states or administrations to substantialize Isaiah, Jeremiah, or Jesus’ vision of justice. Although throughout time and even today many run social economical political realms in the name of religious motivations, as did the Temple. Because spirituality is a powerful motivator and shaper of ideologies. I do think that Jesus’s vision for his world was one where the religious center and the political powers and the foreigners, eunuchs, outcasts, the poor all live in harmony.
As Nicholas Wolterstorff, who was the Professor of Philosophical Theology at Yale for decades says in his book Justice in Love,
“Isaiah foresees a day when the Lord will prepare “for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear” (Isa 25:6). He foresees the day when the people “will abide in [habitations of shalom], in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places” (Isa 32:18)
Food. Housing.
Justice. I think that’s Radical Hospitality. Radical Hospitality is justice work.
The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling[a] together
That’s what Jesus was establishing in his context and that’s what we’re called to do.
I felt cautious in conjuring up this story, as some groups of people have taken such acts literally and confused the metaphors and mistaken the core value and purpose of Jesus’ action, inciting violence in public spaces. In fact, Wright points out that
“The word ‘brigand’, in Jesus’ day, wasn’t a word for ‘thief’ or ‘robber’ in the ordinary sense, but for the revolutionaries, whose we today would call the ultra-orthodox, plotting and ready to use violence to bring about their nationalist dreams… The holy brigands who were bent on violent rebellion against Rome – which in Jesus’ view was exactly the wrong way to bring about the kingdom of God – looked to the Temple as the central focus of their ideology. And the guardians of the Temple itself were notorious for their rich and oppressive lifestyle.”
This was printed in 2001. I had recent news images pop up in my head when I read this and checked its print date. So please, don’t storm any house on a hill.
I think the message here is that there is a protest against the system. It reminds me, as we’ve just celebrated MLK Day, the Montgomery bus boycott. Did you know that boycott lasted for 13 months? And actually, they wrote letters and The Women’s Political Council (WPC), a group of black professionals founded in 1946 met with the city council and mayor to seek change in the bus system for a year before Rosa Park’s arrest.
Can you even imagine a 13-month boycott of your main mode of transportation? It was radical because it cost them. And it cut off the money to the power that be. And while it was happening, some may have asked, it’s such an inconvenience to you, why would you do that?
I have a close friend who fosters. She already has 3 kids of her own and she makes 1 extra room for a kid in need. When I talk to her about her experience, there is a part of me that still doesn’t quite understand,
“why do you do this?”
because it makes her sometimes a bit more busy, extra meetings she takes on with social workers, extra time and energy to work with the foster kid’s school, on top of her 3 kids. It’s hard, stressful. And she says that God humbles her to see the love of a child in and through the broken situations and her heart grows even as her hours in the days get shorter.
We’ve been curious and already a few of you have reached out to see how we can house, feed, support, help in real ways to those who might be feeling extra vulnerable. I am so grateful for our church to have such heart. Jesus would not be flipping tables here I think. Cause if we’re not doing that work, Jesus I think would say things like,
“May no one ever eat fruit from you again”
oh he’s direct, he’ll say his piece. Let’s maybe even clear some things that we seem to be so busy with, to make room for the kind of radical hospitality that Jesus calls us to in this temple. Church, let’s really be clear, and hone in, don’t get distracted with business as usual, but flip every rock to see, okay can we do something about this? Can we make room? How can we help? Let’s be the church foreal. Let me pray for us.
Jesus, thank you for your passion that you so embodied in and through your words, your actions, even to your death.