Sunday, July 19, 2026
Sunday Reflection: The Law of Hospitality
Yesterday, I saw the latest film version of "The Odyssey," which I very much recommend. I read the book a very long time ago, but was surprised by how much I remembered.
This version, like Homer's has an underlying moral tenet that ties together much of the action: what is referred to there as "Zeus's Law of Hospitality," and is sometimes described as an ethic of "guest friendship." This law requires the following in the interactions between hosts and travelers (more or less):
-- Guests must be properly welcomed,
-- Food and clothing should be offered,
-- Guests may be asked about themselves and should honestly answer,
-- The guest should be given a place to sleep, and
-- The guest does not overstay or abuse the host.
In the Odyssey, this moral law is broken by several people (Polyphemus the Cyclops, the suitors of Penelope, and Odysseus himself) with disastrous results. Cyclops eats his guests, the suitors overstay their welcome, and Odysseus tricks the Trojans with a peace offering that is actually a tool of war (once the Trojan horse is accepted, they become guests of Troy). Even keeping the law creates problems-- it is because Penelope respects that law that the suitors get a foothold in her home.
Jesus lived in a Greek cultural world (even as it was a Roman political world); it mattered, for example, that Paul (and probably Jesus) spoke Greek, and it is not by accident that the Gospels were written in Greek. The Greek law of hospitality seeps into the Gospels, too. For example, consider the instructions Jesus gives the 70 when they are sent out to evangelize: they are to count on the welcome of strangers. Jesus, too, teaches to "give to all who ask," which is a core part of hospitality to strangers.
For us today, this is very hard to live out. We are wary of strangers, and welcome into our homes only those we know (and, frankly, not even most of them). We protect our own safety and property, not the welfare of others.
Are we better off for that? What is lost?
