1. The Hospitality of Abraham
Abraham is resting in his tent during the heat of the day. As I write this, the southeast is being blasted with hot humid weather, I can applaud Abraham’s decision to rest during the hottest part of the day. He is visited by 3 strangers. When he sees them, he could have waited for them to come into his tent or he could have called them over; or even yelled for them to be on their way. Abraham however gets up and goes to them bowing to show respect and offers them hospitality. With some help a meal is prepared for the visitors and water for them to wash their feet. The strangers ask him “where is your wife Sarah?” Note that they know her name. Abraham tells them she is in the tent. Then one of the visitors says he will return and Sarah will have a son. So what’s up with that? Remember that it is believed that Abraham and Sarah are in their 90s. The calling of Abram in Genesis 12 says that God told Abram “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you” (Genesis 12:2). If Abraham and Sarah are childless, how are they going to become a nation?
So in this story, Abraham is extending hospitality to visitors who are apparently traveling in the heat of the day. Abraham offers them a chance to rest and recharge themselves for wherever their journey will take them. Abraham has no idea who these 3 visitors are or where they are going. That did not matter. Abraham did what he thought was the right thing to do. The writer of Hebrews knows however, “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it” (Hebrews 13:2).
Do we show hospitality the way Abraham did? Unfortunately, it seems to be much rarer an occasion than I think Jesus would like. There are likely a lot of reasons why it is more rare, but none of them make it right to withhold hospitality to others. I wish I had a good answer to make hospitality the norm and not the exception.
What do you think? What can you do to be more hospitable to others?
Hospitality is important and I’ll spend my first few entries on this theme using different stories in the Bible.
