Text: Genesis 18: 1-14
Think of a time in your life. When someone was especially gracious to you. I can remember going home with a friend of mine to Oak Ridge, Tennessee. They invited me into their home. My friend’s mom cooked up all kinds of special food. She even set me up with a girl from their church. They hardly knew me, but they went out of their way to make me feel welcome. Yet I think that was their way. I suspect all their guests were treated to that good southern hospitality.
All of us can think of times like that. What a blessing to experience it. To experience kindness from people to whom you are pretty much a stranger.
Well today we go way back to a much different time than our own. And here we can’t help but be impressed by the graciousness of Abraham to some strangers who came his way. We can learn from his example of kindness.
But read on and we soon realize there is something much bigger going on. And it’s not just about two very senior citizens named Abraham and Sarah. It’s about you and me and so many others touched by the grace of God in Jesus Christ. So what we have here is:
More than a lesson in Graciousness
I. Yes, learn from a gracious host
II. Give thanks to the One who came as a stranger
It was the hottest time of the day. Not a time to work, not a time to be on the road walking, but a time to lay low out of the hot sun. It seems that Abraham had set up his tent to be shaded by one of the great trees of Mamre. Abraham sat outside with his wife Sarah inside the tent, maybe taking a nap.
2 Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. Moses has already told us who has come to visit these two. The Lord. But Abraham does not yet know that. As far as he is concerned they are strangers.
They stand at some distance before approaching. That was like our knock on the door. You knock before entering. Then you stood at a distance and waited for your host. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.
Don’t get the wrong idea. Abraham was not worshipping here. This was the way you welcomed guests, even strangers. It was a way of saying, you are important to me. There’s a lesson here for us.
Now watch this. 3 He said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by. 4 Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. 5 Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way—now that you have come to your servant.” Think about Abraham’s attitude towards these travelers. What’s he do here? He asks them for the privilege of being generous towards them. For that’s what it is- a privilege. Our Lord blesses with food and clothing and a roof over our heads. And often what do we find. We have more than we need. Well Abraham had in his heart what Jesus would one day teach. It is more blessed to give, than to receive.
That attitude was obvious in Abraham. Is it obvious in us? He didn’t trudge inside the tent and mutter to his wife , It’s so hot and we’ve got these guys outside. Instead we’re told. Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. There’s that value that graciousness was a privilege, even a duty to his guests. “Quick,” he said, “get three seahs of fine flour and knead it and bake some bread.” Back then, you didn’t make the bread ahead of time. You prepared it for the meal. 7 Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it. 8 He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree. Abraham stood near like a waiter might today. He wanted to make sure the meal was just right for these strangers.
But let me pause for a moment. Does this sound foreign to us? Does it sound a bit over the top? Maybe this is just an unusual story. That’s too bad if we think so. This graciousness towards even strangers ought not to be unusual for God’s people. It something we need to aspire to. For what does Jesus say: 32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ do that.(Luke 6) . So look at Abraham and learn from a gracious host.
But of course, when we look at Abraham here, we also see something else. Somebody once said if you want something to look big, put it next to something small. Well it works the other way. I look at Abraham here and I see too often my attitude towards others looks pretty small. Not very loving, not very gracious. Rather sinful.
So thanks be to God, this is more than a lesson in graciousness. Yes learn from Abraham’s example. But give thanks to the One who came as a stranger. Not only to Abraham. But to you and me.
Years before, the Lord had spoken to Abraham and made him a set of special promises. Two of them were: I will make you into a great nation. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you. Abraham: From your descendants will come a great nation of many people. And this, Abraham also understood. One of those many descendants would be a blessing to the whole world. For he would not just be a son of Abraham. He would be the Son of God. We now know that one special descendant. His name is Jesus. And we know the blessings he has brought to us.
But now years had gone by since the Lord’s promise to Abraham and Sarah. More than once they had wondered what we sometimes wonder when we look around in our lives. How is the Lord going to keep his promise to me? How is he going to help me? How is he going to provide for me? Again and again the Lord propped up their faith in special ways. Yet still they remained childless-no son and now they were very, very old.
So picture these three men sitting under the tree enjoying the meal. One of them is the Lord. The others are angels, all come in the form of men. 9 “Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him Back then, you didn’t ask about someone’s wife unless you knew them well. This must have made Abraham wonder. But then came these words that must have made his heart sit up and take notice. “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.” How could he know, what the Lord had promised us? How could he speak with such authority unless this stranger is…?!
Sarah is just inside the tent. She too heard this stranger’s words. A son? She thinks of her own body, now no longer ovulating. She thinks of her husband whose reproductive capacity is long gone. She laughs. But not out loud. She has what she thinks is a private laugh, a private unbelieving thought to herself inside the tent 13 Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord?…
We know the answer, don’t we? But like Sarah and Abraham at times we’re not always so sure. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Well here we can think of something much more amazing than God’s power to give them a little boy in their old age. For God’s Word says: the wages of sin is death. Left to ourselves we would stand before God with the stench of our guilt. guilt for our sins. Left to ourselves we would hear God say the most fearful words that we deserve. Depart from me.
But is anything too hard for the Lord? I know what I deserve. But Give thanks to the One who came as a stranger Follow his promise. From this son to another and then to another for hundreds of years until… a virgin was with child and gave birth to a son who was Emmanuel — God with us. Why did he come? To live each day of his life for you, in your place. And then to take your guilt and mine upon himself. To take it to a cross where he offered that life to set us free. Do you know that freedom? To be free from that heavy load of guilt, to be free to live your live with a hope kept in heaven for you. I know what I deserve. But to save me was not too hard for the Lord. Not too hard to suffer and die for me. Not too hard for His great love.
That’s what I want you to take home today. There are times in our lives where it seems too hard. It feels too sad, too hopeless. You and I need the words of this stranger who is a stranger no more. He is our God, our loving Father.
So when you feel that way, I want you to remember these Words. They are also for you. Say to your troubled heart. Say to Satan who wants to bring you down. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Then give it over to Him. Amen.