There are six specific kinds of service that Jesus mentions with urgency in his remarks about the Last Judgment (Matthew 25:31-46), one part of the Sermon on the Mount. He says: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome strangers (xenos: immigrants and other strangers), clothe the naked, visit the sick, and visit the imprisoned: rewards and penalties apply. Most people who recall the list remember five of the six, passing over the third; of those who do remember the third urgent command, most use well meant but quirky and somewhat misleading translations (“shelter the homeless” or even “harbor the harbourless”). Getting the third right is fundamental – indispensable – to clear thought about how to follow God in America today.
If you look at the whole passage through the lens of hospitality, focusing on hospitality, there’s much to see. If you restore the third injunction, it may seem trivial or even meaningless at first: just as you don’t see a lot of naked people on the streets, maybe strangers don’t knock on your door, ever. But if you look at Abraham as a model of hospitality, and see how Moses uses the principle of hospitality, and let the idea of hospitality take root, new insights pour out.
Suppose, recognizing the difficulty of translating the third of the Six Final Tests properly, we translate it imprecisely but concisely: be hospitable. Then there are three specific details of hospitality: food, water, and clothing. And the last two – visit the sick and imprisoned – are also about hospitality, but about pro-active hospitality, visiting others and offering hospitality where they are, acting as a host although you are not at home.
It’s not just the general command to welcome strangers that’s about hospitality; ALL SIX questions on the final exam can be understood as aspects of hospitality.
