Hospitality and welcome

And the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, And said, My LORD, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant: Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree: And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said.

Abraham, sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day, runs to meet three strangers and presses food on them: water for their feet, shade under the tree, bread. The welcome comes first. Who they are becomes clear only afterwards.

And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

Law about resident foreigners: do not exploit them, count them as native-born, love them as yourself. The reason given is memory, "for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt." Welcome is owed because of what was once done to you.

He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment. Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

God is described as doing justice for the fatherless and the widow and as loving the stranger by giving him food and clothing. The command follows from the description, on the same ground: Israel had been strangers themselves.

So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand. And she said, As the LORD thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die. And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the LORD sendeth rain upon the earth.

Elijah asks a starving widow in a foreign town for water, then for bread. She has a handful of meal and a little oil, and expects to eat it with her son and die. He asks her to feed him first. It is a hard thing to ask of someone with nothing.

The stranger did not lodge in the street: but I opened my doors to the traveller.

Job, defending his life, lists what never happened at his house: no stranger slept in the street, because he opened his doors to the traveller. Hospitality stands here as a plain measure of an honest life, listed beside fair dealing.

And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.

At a dinner Jesus points out what his host left undone: no water for the feet, no greeting kiss, no oil for the head. These were ordinary courtesies of the house, and their absence was noticed. A woman off the street supplies all three.

For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

Part of the judgment scene. The king lists food, drink and a bed for a stranger, and says they were done to him. Welcome given to someone nobody knew, with nothing to be gained by it, is what gets counted.

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

"Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares" points back at Abraham and at Lot. The argument is that the door cannot be sorted by who deserves to come through it, because you do not know who is there.

Use hospitality one to another without grudging.

One line to scattered congregations: use hospitality to one another without grudging. Houses were where they met, so hosting was a real and repeated cost. The phrase concedes that it is often resented, and asks for it anyway.