Love the Stranger???

Over 36 times in the Jewish and Christian Bibles people are commanded to “love the stranger.”  The scriptures are insistent!  Why this concern to be hospitable to the stranger?  And who was the stranger? Whether he or she was someone loosely attached to one of the tribes, a convert to Israelite religion, or a foreigner, the stranger was clearly a threat, an outsider who was different.

The person who is different or strange can hurt you.  This is not an illusion. The stranger can be a threat; Strangers look different.  They talk different.  They eat different.  They are different.  The stranger can be a threat by his or her mere existence.  And it doesn’t take much for us to be afraid. 

Being “different” does not always have the best connotation.  When I first came to live in this part of the world I learned about the word “different.” How was your date last night?  She was different.  How was your meal at the new restaurant?  It was different.  How was your class with Haar?  He was different.

So, why does the scripture implore people to “love the stranger for you were strangers in the land of Egypt?”  It is true the Hebrews were aware of what it meant to be treated in a terrible way just because they had always been foreigners.  They were made slaves, oppressed and their babies murdered. They were commanded to be different yet they were and are today desperate to belong.  But why should all of that result in a general command to “love the stranger?”

“Love the stranger for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”  It is a warning to us all.  To not care for the stranger is to not be hospitable. This was the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah,  to be indifferent or hostile to the stranger.  And Wiesel has a point:  "The opposite of love is not hate.  The opposite of love is indifference." And Indifference is decadence.  Indifference means to not care.  A person who is indifferent is already dead but he or she doesn’t know it yet. 

Love the stranger because we have all been and felt like strangers, like we were different,  like aliens, like we did not belong, like we did not fit in. We have all felt like outsiders. We are indeed a nation of outsiders whose forebears got into boats and came to this country hoping to belong.

Love the stranger despite your fear. The stranger may frighten you but do not live your life out of fear.  Love the stranger for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.  Loving the stranger is at the heart of what it means to be a Jew, a Christian and if nothing else, a person of character.