Guestability

by Mary Luti | published on Jun 10, 2026

[Jesus] looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” He came down at once and welcomed him gladly. – Luke 19:5-6 (NIV) 

We usually think of Jesus as the welcoming host. But in scripture he doesn’t host much at all. He’s far more often someone else’s guest. 

Jesus-as-host challenges us to be welcoming like he was, to turn no one away. But Jesus-as-guest? Is there any challenge to us in that?  

Yes, and maybe a bigger one. Because in Jesus’s world, hosting wasn’t simply a generous act, it was also a way to show power. There were higher and lower places, better food and drink according to status. Hosting was a statement of taste, custom, hierarchy, and control.  

If Jesus had been primarily a host, it would mean he was in control. But he wasn’t. He’s a hungry Messiah more than a hospitable one: Jesus the moocher, indiscriminately dependent on rich and poor, saint and sinner alike. This Jesus challenges us to relinquish, as he did, the privileges, pretensions, and presumptions of the inviter and host. 

Hospitality is a crucial virtue, but if it’s all we aim for, if we see ourselves only as inviters and welcomers, we might never develop another crucial virtue, one that preacher Sam Wells calls “guestability.” It’s the grace and the willingness to be receptive, available to learn, appreciate, and adapt to the ways of others in their territory, not ours. 

Guestability de-centers us. As Wells writes, it never says, “You can belong here because I’m being good to you.” It says instead, “Being with you is showing me there’s something beyond us both. We’re both heading there. You may be closer to it than I am. So let’s make our way there together.” 

Prayer
Jesus, tell me to come down from my unconfessed entitlement. Invite yourself to my house today. Be my guest. Teach me how to be one, too.

Mary Luti About the Author
Mary Luti is a long time seminary educator and pastor, author of Teresa of Avila’s Way and numerous articles, and founding member of The Daughters of Abraham, a national network of interfaith women’s book groups.