The Spiritual Discipline of Hospitality The Hospitality of Abraham In Scripture and Iconography by Archbishop Michael
Spring/ Summer 2015
Then God appeared to him (Abraham) at the oak of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door during the noon hour. So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold three men stood before him, and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, and said, “O Lord, if I have now found grace in Your sight, do not pass by Your servant. Let water be brought, and let them wash Your feet, while You cool Yourselves under the tree. And I will bring bread for You to eat. After that You may pass by, inasmuch as You have come to Your servant.” They said, “Do as you have said.” So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quickly make ready three measures of fine meal; knead it and make cakes.” Then Abraham ran to the herd, took a young calf, tender and good, gave it to his servant; and he hastened to prepare it. He also took butter and milk and the calf he prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree as they ate. Then He said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” He replied, “Here, in the tent.” Again He said, “I will certainly return to you, according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son.” (Sarah was listening in the tent door behind him). Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age; and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. Therefore, Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “I have not yet had a child until now, and my lord is old also?” Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh within herself, saying, “Shall I surely bear a child since I am old? Is anything impossible with God? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.” But Sarah denied she had laughed; for she was afraid, saying, “I did not laugh”; but He said, “No, but you did laugh.” (Genesis 18:1-15) This reading from Genesis is the story commonly known as “The Hospitality of Abraham.” In this account, three angels appear to Abraham and Sarah. They treat their visitors with great reverence, and prepare a meal for them. What Abraham and Sarah offer is, in Greek, “philoxenia,” which means love for the stranger or “hospitality.” There are in the Old Testament other examples of showing kindness to the stranger – Lot, Rebekah, and Job who boasts: “But I was very kind. For the stranger did not spend the night outside, and my door was opened to everyone who came” (Job 31:3132). In the Scripture, true hospitality is extended without commandment or reward. It is a self-evident duty, given precedence, over neighborliness. The general acceptance of this duty in later Judaism is proved by the Gospel accounts, which reflect the importance of hospitality in the life and message of Christ (Luke 7:36, ff.; 9:51, ff.; 10:38, ff.; 14:1, ff., etc.).
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friendliness involves sharing one’s possessions with all comers.” Chrysostom goes on to say that this was not Abraham’s only instance of kindness to strangers: “Since he cast a wide net of hospitality, he in turn was judged worthy to welcome the Lord of all with his angels. Hence Paul too said, ‘Do not neglect “philoxenia,” for through it some people have entertained angels, all unawares’ (Hebrews 13:2), referring precisely to the patriarch. Hence Christ said, ‘Whoever receives one of the least of these in My name, receives Me’” (Matthew 18:5; 25:40,45).
St. John further explains what this means to us, when he says that we should not have regard to the station of the visitor, nor despise him on the basis of what we can see; instead, we should consider that in him, we are welcoming Our Lord. Abraham, he points out, willingly and with great enthusiasm became the “servant” to the visitors, not relying on In his commentary on Chapter 18 of Genesis, his own servants to help him to care for them. “He St. John Chrysostom explains to us the meaning bows to the ground” (v. 4), St. John says, “… as of Abraham’s “hospitality” when he writes: “He if making supplication and addressing an earnest (Abraham) was putting ‘philoxenia’ into practice to prayer to them lest it be thought his appeal was such a degree as to be unwilling to entrust to anyone made merely perfunctorily … thus giving evidence else in the household the task of attending to the by his posture and his words of his great ardor, his guests; instead, although he had 318 servants and was great humility, his insistent spirit of hospitality, his himself an old man, having attained advanced years … ineffable care.”
