Jesus, King of Strangers (Foreword by Shaun Casey)

Jesus, King of Strangers

Jesus, King of Strangers What the Bible Really Says about Immigration

Mark W. Hamilton

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company Grand Rapids, Michigan

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 4035 Park East Court SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546 www.eerdmans.com © 2019 Mark W. Hamilton All rights reserved Published 2019 Printed in the United States of America 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ISBN 978-0-8028-7662-1

Library of Congress Cataloging-­in-­Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

Contents

Foreword by Shaun Casey

vii

Preface

xi

1. The Reality of Migration

1

2. The Bible and the Migrant

14

3. Migration as Experience and Literary Theme

30

4. Exodus and Exile

46

5. Exodus, Exile, and Human Nature

63

6. The Law of the Stranger

81

7. The Voice of Prophecy

98

8. Israel as Migrant and Host of Migrants v

112

Contents

9. New Testament Transformations

124

10. A Conclusion for Now

141

Notes

147

Bibliography

159

Index

167

vi

Foreword

I

t is a rare thing when a biblical scholar, at the top of his or her scholarly game, writes a book that compellingly addresses a contemporary political and moral issue as contentious as the current debate in the United States over immigration and refugees. Rarer still is the book that supplants all previous scholarly attempts to cover the same terrain. And rarest of all is a book that displays elegant prose and a strong, clear, and accessible argument comprehensible beyond a small circle of scholars such that a radical book for a wider public emerges. Mark Hamilton’s work, Jesus, King of Strangers, is one of those once-in-a-generation books that manages to do all these things.

Why should you read this book? Given the fact that certain tribes of American Christianity seem hell-bent on despising, and not loving, their neighbors, at least the ones not born here, all Christians need to take up the argument of this book. To put it bluntly, the way in which American Christians sort the new global reality of hundreds of millions of people on the move may decide the fate many such people face today. People of the Book matter in this controversy. If we Christians turn our backs, America turns vii

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its back. If we embrace the migrant and the refugee, the rest of the nation may do likewise. So why not invest a modest amount of time reading a guide to what the Hebrew Bible actually claims about how such people on the move are to be treated?

Scholars, teachers, students, clergy—even presidents—would learn more than a little from Jesus, King of Strangers, to say nothing of the sycophantic Christian court prophets who speak smooth and reassuring words of neglect to the current occupant of the White House. As the author argues, many, perhaps most Americans who turn to the Hebrew Bible for some sort of normative guidance have not grasped the full import of that text for the contemporary discussion.

But a much a larger audience should wrestle with the powerful conclusions Mark Hamilton draws. And that audience would be all of us who live in America, be they citizens, resident aliens, visitors, guests, religious, nonreligious, young, old, or undocumented. That is because we all have a stake in how our country sorts the questions around migration and refugee resettlement. The very substance of our democracy is at stake in the face of unprecedented numbers of people on the move around our planet. Will Americans turn their backs to those in need or will we, in league with the rest of the world, do our part to respond in love and help to the most vulnerable around the planet who are fleeing violence, famine, and oppression?

The true power of this book unfolds in a cumulative fashion.

Hamilton guides us through the pervasive and central accounts of human movement in the pages of the Bible. People have been traveling across the world throughout human history and they continue today in record numbers. The centrality of human movement in Scripture seems to have eluded our understanding as we current readers of the Bible seem to be blind to this fact. The biblical accounts are not neutral! Hamilton deftly shows us throughout the various literary forms and historical periods woven into the Bible that a compelling set of conclusions emerges. If we accept these accounts as authoritative, our blindness, or worse yet, our repudiation of the truths presented cannot be excused. viii

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The fate of the millions of humans who are currently displaced around the planet is one of the most compelling moral questions of our day. Facing the irony of a country, now populated by descendants of those who came here from other countries, some by choice, others by compulsion, turning its back on the contemporary waves of migrants and refugees is indeed a bitter prospect. We in America are at a moral inflection point, to use contemporary jargon. Will we welcome these people in peril, or will we ignore their pleas for help, shelter, and food in order to maintain our own luxury?

One the one hand, Christians, Jews, and many others have been the vanguard in welcoming strangers to our shores in the past few decades. Millions of new Americans have been resettled across our vast landscape. Yet, on the other hand, certain Christian tribes are the drivers of xenophobia and hatred, in effect repudiating the very central tenets of what it means to be a follower of God. Nothing short of the well-being of millions of suffering people is at stake here. Which path will we choose?

If you do not fully understand the compelling and nuanced story of the Hebrew Bible’s accounts of sojourning people, read this book and you will learn many new things. If you believe you know that story, you, too, should read this book, as I guarantee you will learn much that you do not currently know. If your community is wrestling with how to respond to the new people from beyond our borders living in your town, read this book, too.

Finally, let me offer up a confession. I have known Mark Hamilton for decades. I do not write these words from the perch of a neutral observer. He is the epitome of what a scholar should be. He writes not only for his own particular guild of scholars. (Luckily for us, his vocational concerns are not limited to small circles of eccentric academics—my words not his). He has a passion for justice anchored in an understanding of what human communities and institutions ought to do based on an understanding of who God is and what that understanding requires of us. Jesus, King of Strangers: What the Bible Really Says about Immigration demonstrates a rare mastery of cutting-edge scholarship, and it renders an understanding of the biblical text that is compelling and accessible to the genix

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eral reader. As such it is a work of love. As a friend and colleague, I have been the beneficiary of Mark’s wisdom and knowledge for a long time now. Let me commend to you a deep dive into his wisdom and knowledge here. You will be the better for it, as I am the better for being his friend for several decades and a lucky early reader of this marvelous book.

Shaun Casey Georgetown University Armistice Day 2018

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