FORUM: Bible teaches hospitality to immigrants
Published 9:08 pm Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Just like everyone else in American society, Christians hold a variety of viewpoints on issues.
Often, proponents of both sides will interpret passages from the Bible to support their contradictory opinions. But one issue gripping our country has very clear references in the Bible with very little room for alternate interpretations. That issue is the proper treatment of immigrants.
The approach found in the Bible is rooted in the ancient virtue of hospitality. In the 18th chapter of Genesis, Abraham receives three strangers at his encampment with hospitality. As it turns out, the three are heavenly messengers in disguise. Centuries later, the writer of the Biblical book of Hebrews summed up the story: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”
Abraham was an immigrant himself, come to the land we now know as Israel from present-day Iraq. When the descendants of his grandson Jacob came back to the Promised Land after being slaves in Egypt, God gave Moses a very specific set of rules for them to live by. Some dealt with how they should treat other transient peoples. They are based on one simple concept — because God’s people are the descendents of wandering tribesmen, they must be kind to other wanderers. Leviticus 19:34 says, “The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.” In chapter 26 of Deuteronomy, God calls upon the people to set aside a tenth of their harvest every year to share with “the aliens who reside among you.” Not only are God’s people to allow immigrants to enter their land, they are to welcome them warmly and help them in their need.
Unfortunately, it is always a dark part of human nature to mistreat those who are different. When the Old Testament prophets spoke of how people had disappointed God, one of the failings they mentioned was depriving immigrants of justice (Malachi 3:5). In the famous passage about the sheep and the goats, Jesus includes in the list of the good deeds the sheep have done, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”
The welcoming of strangers, aliens or immigrants is not simply a biblical command but a virtue Americans have recognized as important since the beginning of our nation. That is why one of the great symbols of our country, the Statue of Liberty, is associated with a poem by Emma Lazarus about immigrants. We must never forget that like the Israelites, we are a nation of immigrants.
The Rev. M. Christopher Boyer is pastor of Good Shepherd Baptist Church in Lynnwood.
