When I Was the Stranger

Scripture: Exodus 23:9 – “You shall not oppress a resident alien; you know the heart of an alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.” (NRSVUE)

On the whole, the Bible is very pro-immigrant. But why? It relates to why people migrate in the first place. I think most people like to stay where they are. They have friends, family, roots, and concerns for their community. The only reason people would leave is if there was something wrong. If there is a natural disaster or a war or great oppression, they might feel that leaving all they have known is their only choice. Being a stranger in a strange land, never quite fitting in, and having to work your way up from the bottom – you don’t do these things unless you must.

In the Bible, immigrants are one of the groups that is most in need of compassion and protection from a community, along with widows and orphans. Those in special need require special care. But the Bible doesn’t say you should help immigrants because it is the right thing to do. Rather it should come from a place of common experience.

When the children of Israel settled in Egypt, they were fleeing a famine. When they left Egypt, they were escaping from slavery. They knew what it was like to suffer poverty, oppression, and death. They were never to forget this and it was always there in the stories told in Sabbath prayers and annual festivals. So, if they knew slavery but were given God’s grace, they should recognize the same suffering in others and expend God’s grace to them as well. One of the advantages of suffering is not building endurance and character, but the feeling a hope that no one else has to go through the same thing alone that you did.

However, some people don’t always behave like their best selves. There is an impulse, especially in a hyper-competitive and consumerist world, to pull the ladder up after you. Once you are on the top, you are more worried about helping others at the top than people like you on the bottom. You might feel like if you had to scrap for everything you had in your life, everyone else should have to do the same.

When we fall into these traps of fear, we are losing faith in God, the God who promises protection and success for those who show empathy to others. The truth is that every family in the world were immigrants at some point. It may have been days ago, years ago, centuries ago, even millennia ago. But at some point, you or your ancestors had to start over in a new place. The Bible asks us to remember the similarities we have with other people, and not the differences that divide us.

When we see desperate people, our reaction should not be apathy or thanksgiving that “There but for the grace of God go I”. It should never be pleasure at the misfortune of “those people.” We should remember the hard times in our lives and act out of compassion. That is what God has been calling us to do from the beginning.

Immigration is a divisive political issue, even violently so. But it doesn’t have to be. The Bible reminds us that the basic principle is one of empathy. As long as that, rather than fear or resentment, is placed at the center, we might find our society and certainly our inner attitudes shift more towards God’s will and God’s Kingdom. So, the next time you see someone who doesn’t quite fit in, remember the ways in which you didn’t fit in, or the stories you heard of your grandparents or their grandparents when they didn’t fit in. Remember your past and use your compassion to build a future of love.

Prayer: Let my faith in you be greater than my fear of others and help me to spread your generosity to those in need. Amen.  

Image credit: Luis Alejandro Bernal Romero, wikimedia commons.