In the Missio Dei publication, What is an Anabaptist Christian?, Palmer Becker proposes that the first core value for Anabaptists is that “Jesus is the center of our faith.” What, then, can Jesus teach us about the matter of immigrants and outsiders? First of all, Jesus began his life as a refugee. He and his family were forced to flee to Egypt when he was a small child to avoid Herod’s rampage (Matthew 2). It is not possible to know with certainty how long they sojourned in Egypt, but it is well documented that at that time there was a large Jewish community there. In other words, life in another place as a displaced person was part of Jesus’ personal experience.

In his teaching, Jesus does not engage this topic directly. It is important to appreciate, however, that Jesus constantly involved himself with those who were different and despised. Of special importance is his interaction with the Samaritans, a people loathed by the Jews. Jesus speaks with a Samaritan woman in John 4, and in Luke 10 he uses a Samaritan as the model of righteousness in his response to the question, “Who is my neighbor?” This teaching is consistent with Jesus’ reaching out to the marginalized— Gentiles, women, the poor, the sick, and those classified as sinners.

The meaning of the admonition in Matthew 25 to care for the stranger is disputed (verses 35, 38, 43-44).

Advocates for refugees and immigrants often appeal to this passage. The problem is that the occurrences of the qualifications “the least of these” and “brothers” (verses 40, 45) in the Gospel of Matthew may restrict these individuals to Jesus’ disciples (10:42; 12:48-49; 18:6, 10, 14; 28:10). If this is, in fact, a more accurate interpretation, then “strangers” are a more specific group—they are followers of Jesus who suffer for his sake.

This becomes reality in the book of Acts. Many early believers are scattered by persecution (8:1-5; see also Revelation 1:9), and itinerant preachers were a common phenomenon in the early church, as perhaps best illustrated by the missionary journeys of Paul (1 Corinthians 16:5-18; Galatians 4:13-14; Philippians 2:19-30; 3 John 5-10). These missionary efforts eventually produced multiethnic churches with believers from various backgrounds and places of origin (Acts 13:1)—a mix that produced tensions within the community of faith (Acts 15; Galatians 2; Ephesians 2).

The life and teachings of Jesus stress that believers need to consider the possibility that those who are different are the very ones to whom they should turn.

Excerpted from Immigration and the Bible, Missio Dei No. 19, by M. Daniel Carroll R. (Rodas). In this new offering from the Missio Dei series, Carroll examines immigration and stories of immigrants from Old Testament, New Testament, Jesus-based, and apostle-based perspectives.