Biblical urgency about hospitality

Day 15 – O’Keefe – the Biblical urgency about welcoming strangers

The clear admonition in the Bible that we take care of immigrants and other strangers was watered down and almost forgotten for some years.  But when you do retrieve it, you find that this neglected teaching is repeated all through Scripture with tremendous urgency.

Caring for strangers shows up 18 times in the trio that touches the heart if there’s a heart to be touched: widows, orphans and strangers.

The command shows up all through Leviticus, not as a detail of the dietary laws, but as the principle that explains many laws.

The command shows up frequently followed immediately by a command to respect God.  Punctuation is not an ancient invention, so we can’t say for sure whether welcome-strangers-respect-God is a single idea in a single sentence.  But throughout Scripture, they are clearly related ideas.

At the end of his life, Moses gave a long teaching that incorporates 12 curses.  The list includes a curse on anyone who perverts justice for the familiar trio – widows, orphans, strangers (Deut 27:19).

Psalm 94 stretches to explain an incredible evil: they are so evil that they even kill widows and strangers and orphans!  Worse evils are beyond the imagination, it seems.

In his “Temple Sermon,” Jeremiah cries out for reform, and lists four specific details: Deal justly with your neighbor, stop oppressing the stranger and the orphan and the widow, do not murder the innocent, and avoid idolatry (Jer 7:6).  Later, Jeremiah addresses the king of Israel, and says that if the king fails to make these reforms, the kingdom will fall and the palace will be smashed to rubble.  In his words to the king, he drops one item – idolatry – from his Temple Sermon: he does not focus on idolatry.  But he keeps the demand to care for the familiar trio (Jer 22:3). 

Ezekiel does the same.  The children of Israel deserve to be exiled in Babylon, he says, because of a list of evils, including the oppression of immigrants and other strangers (Ez 22: 7 and 22:29).

In the last chapter of the last book in the Old Testament, the prophet Malachi describes a mysterious day of immense violence, when the messenger of the covenant will come “like a refiner’s fire,” purifying the children of Israel.  The description of this day includes judgment against a list of specific evils: sorcery, adultery, perjury, defrauding employees of their wages, defrauding widows and orphans, ignoring the rights of strangers, and failing to fear God.  Note the familiar three.  And note the connection from welcoming strangers to respecting God (Mal 3:5).

The fiery words in Matthew’s Gospel are not puzzling strays.  When you welcome an immigrant or other stranger, you welcome the Lord of the universe, and the rewards are incalculable forever.  When you slam the door shut, the almighty Lord takes it personally, and responds with justice.  Hospitality is not trivial decoration; it is fundamental.

Urgent: Welcome immigrants!  (Eternal rewards and penalties apply.)

Mr. Parrott?