Cleaning up for company

Do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature (Romans 13:11-14).

As we look forward to the holiday season, it is time to get ready for guests. Many, if not most of us, will have company over at some time in the next several weeks. It may be college students returning home from school. It may be parents or grandparents gathering to open presents. It may be friends who are coming to enjoy a festive dinner. It may be co-workers who have been invited over for drinks and conversation. One of the best things about the holiday season is the opportunity to gather together with those we love and celebrate together.

But having guests over involves work, and some guests require more work than others. It is one thing to prepare for an evening’s party or a Sunday dinner; it is quite another to get ready for a guest who’s going to stay for a few days. Preparing for a visit of a few hours calls for cleaning the living room, the dining room, the kitchen and the bathroom, but that’s about it—bedroom doors can be closed to hide messes that we don’t want to deal with. But when a visitor is coming from a distance and will be staying with us for a while, getting ready takes a lot more work. Old mail must be gone through and thrown away. Clothes in the mending pile must be dealt with and hung up. Photo albums must be organized. The medicine cabinet needs to be gone through. Toys need to be stored away. Every room needs to be cleaned and organized.

Having a houseguest can be demanding on us. It would be embarrassing to have a guest who was up late if you came home drunk and spent the next several hours vomiting in the bathroom. It would be embarrassing to have a guest accidentally come across pornography in your house. It would be embarrassing to have a guest overhear you and your spouse screaming at each other in a vicious argument. Having a houseguest around constantly reminds us that we all have habits we’d prefer to keep secret from others.

In today’s Epistle lesson, Paul speaks of getting ready to receive a houseguest. That houseguest is Jesus. Paul advises us to put our houses in order as we prepare to welcome our Lord into our world and into our lives. Jesus is not interested in only visiting with us for a few hours and then leaving. The Son of God would like us to welcome Him into our homes for a long visit, a visit that will last until the day that He takes us from our earthly homes to be His guests in His heavenly home. Jesus would like to be a permanent part of our lives.

When we welcome our Lord, He takes up residence in our hearts. But our hearts are full of things that we’d prefer to keep secret—ugly, distasteful things. Paul mentions only a few: orgies and drunkenness…sexual immorality and debauchery…dissension and jealousy. Having such things in our hearts at the same time as our Lord Jesus leads to embarrassment for us and shabby treatment of our royal guest. Jesus is present in your heart when you get drunk. Jesus is present in your heart when you fantasize about a person you are not married to. Jesus is present in your heart when you hurl bitter words at the members of your family. When these things happen, Jesus is the guest who sees you passed out on the floor, comes across your pornography, listens as you spew hatred at those you claim to love.

How embarrassing. How discourteous.

Paul advises us to do a thorough housecleaning for our treasured houseguest. He calls on us to behave decently, to cultivate good behaviors. Having a houseguest can prompt us to being more thoughtful of what we think, do and say. Do you give up smoking when you have company? If you do, your body is all the healthier for it. Do you remember to say "please" and "thank you" and "may I" when you have company? If you do, everyone benefits from greater peace and respect in the household. Do you bite your tongue and hold in angry words when there is a guest present? If you do, your relationship of love with your family is strengthened by your forbearance. Having a guest stay over encourages us to be on our best behavior, and this can result in better relationships and less stress in our homes.

So it is with Jesus. When we are aware of His presence in our hearts every day, we want to be on our best behavior. Knowing that Jesus is in our hearts, we don’t want to make His stay unpleasant. We don’t want to fill our hearts with disrespect, anger, lust or greed. We don’t want to throw our sins in Jesus’ face as if He couldn’t care less about what we do with our lives. Do you swear in front of your grandmother? Of course not—and neither would you swear in front of Jesus, if you always remembered that He is a houseguest in your heart every moment of every day.

But there is a problem. We can’t be on our best behavior all the time. Sooner or later we slip. Sooner or later you are offered one more drink than you should have, and you make the mistake of deciding that you can handle it. Sooner or later you see a very attractive person at work or while shopping, and you take a moment to fantasize about what it would be like to share an intimate moment with that person. Sooner or later you are faced with one frustration too many, and you blurt out a curse or an insult. Sooner or later every one of us messes up, and places something sinful right next to Jesus in our heart.

Thankfully, Jesus isn’t like other houseguests. Jesus is not easily insulted or offended. Jesus is the one who taught His disciples: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also (Luke 6:27-29). Jesus Himself lives this way, and for that we are eternally grateful. We mistreat Jesus when we ignore His presence in our hearts and do as we please. But Jesus does not abandon us when we offend Him; Jesus stays with us and offers His mercy to us instead. As long as we believe in Jesus as the only person sent by God to be our Savior, we are promised that He is willing to forgive us for every time that we strike Him in the face with our sins.

Jesus is the perfect houseguest. He is always good company, inspiring us to try and be better hosts. He always accepts our apologies for our shabby hospitality. And He doesn’t take our homes for granted. Our Lord is like the guest who takes his own luggage up to the guestroom and helps with the dishes. Jesus not only lives with us, He also takes an active interest in helping us with our lives. Our Lord knows that sinful desires and behaviors fill our lives with stress and unhappiness. Jesus wants to change all that. Our Lord wants to help us to clean our lives of everything that is harmful—impulsive decision making, addictive behaviors, and a throw-away mentality that discards the blessings of the past for the thrill of the new. Our Lord wants to help us to make well-thought-out decisions that always respect God’s holy Law. He wants to help us to do things because they are important, not just as a matter of routine. He wants to help us to develop beneficial habits of working hard, eating healthy, and showing Godly love whenever we enjoy the company of others. Jesus wants to show us a new way to live, a way that is healthy and leads to contentment, a way that is summed up in two commandments: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10:27).

In Galatians 6:7-8, Paul writes: Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Jesus cannot be deceived. When we have dinner guests, we can hide a mess by closing the bedroom door. But Jesus is our houseguest; He lives with us and knows everything about us. We cannot come to church for one or two hours a week and pretend that the rest of our week escapes His notice. We cannot fool Jesus into thinking that we are sincerely sorry for our sins when we go home from church with no intention of trying to live better lives. If we want to have the kind of home that Jesus deserves as our visiting king, we can’t just hide our sins, we must start facing them and ask Jesus to help us in throwing out our old wicked habits.

Advent is the season where we prepare to celebrate our Lord’s arrival on earth to free us from sin, death and the devil. While it is true that Jesus has lived in your heart ever since you were baptized in His name, Advent is a good time to look at your life and do a little housecleaning. What kind of place do you want to offer Jesus for His stay? Do you want to offer Him a seat at a dinner table where everyone bickers and glares, or do you want to seat Him at a table where family members respect each other and enjoy each others’ company? Would you take your Savior out for an evening of fun at a bar, or would you rather that He join you at a skating rink? Would you like the Lord to spend the evening with you watching a TV show filled with coarse words and suggestive language, or would you prefer to take a quiet stroll with Him under the moon and the stars?

Jesus is the best houseguest that anyone could ever have. He inspires us to be our best, not our worst. He forgives us for our every failure. He brings peace and lower stress into our homes by helping us to forgive each other, and by giving us advice on how to lead lives that are emotionally and physically healthy. And best of all, while He only lives with us for a few decades at most, He invites us to be His houseguests forever. It is my prayer that you will do everything in your power to make Him welcome in your life, because He is the best guest you will receive, this month or any other.