Abstract
The essay explores the concept of hospitality in the Gospel of John and its relevance in today’s context, particularly in relation to strangers, migrants, and the poor. John’s perspective on hospitality is ambivalent in that it places restrictions on whom to extend benevolence and welcome into the community, based on belief. At the same time, the author of John presents a subtle reversal of roles between host and guest, with Jesus embracing both roles: a guest in need of hospitality and a host who welcomes all. Ambivalent hospitality arises in the narrative when conditions are established providing lodging, meals, and assistance based on one’s beliefs, understandings, or identity. The essay calls for leaders today to engage in deeper consideration of justice and human rights that promote hospitality for all without ambivalence.
At a time when there is an increasing suspicion of strangers, migrants, and the poor, this essay examines how the Gospel of John might help us (or not) in being in partnership with the most vulnerable.
Unlike the Synoptics and the Pauline epistles, John is not typically a source that one consults to learn about hospitality in the first-century world of ancient Judea. The Synoptics and the Pauline writings reference hospitality directly with their attention to table fellowship (e.g., Mark 2:16; 1 Cor 11:17–34; Rom 14:1–15:7), receiving the stranger (e.g., Matt 10:40; Heb 13:2), helping the vulnerable (Luke 10:25–37), or providing material hospitality (Luke 9:10–17). These are the texts that readers turn to when they want to learn what the early Christian movement has to say about house-church generosity, sharing meals, and fellowship with others. The later Johannine tradition, including the letters of John, does attend to hospitality, though it places limits on who is deserving: only the children of God (e.g., 1 John 1:3–10; 2 John 10–13; 3 John 5–10). 1
In the Gospel of John hospitality varies in its manifestations, and, more importantly, its values. John appears to vacillate between unconditionally accepting strangers and placing certain restrictions on whom to welcome. At the same time, John employs an understated reversal of roles that occur between host and guest. On the one hand, Jesus enters the world as a guest in need of hospitality, and on the other hand, Jesus is a host who welcomes all. 2 This subtle reversal is often played out in the plot of John. Thus, the author expresses different manifestations of hospitality: he offers material hospitality, welcomes a stranger, and shares table fellowship. This hospitality fluctuates between an infinite notion of hospitality (e.g., all are welcomed) and a limited notion of hospitality (e.g., those who believe are welcomed). On this latter value of hospitality, it is often the unbelievers, typically lumped together as “the Jews,” who must deal with the consequences of the host who welcomes with limitations. 3
In what follows, various narratives will be explored to reveal how different manifestations of hospitality are expressed. 4 To aid in this endeavor, the essay uses a threefold narrative outline of John as a heuristic aid to read the plot of John (narrative of unsettlement, 1:1–18, narrative of travel, 1:19–17:26, narrative of resettlement, 18:1–21:25). 5 Also, methodologically speaking, this reading is not a traditional historical reading of hospitality, but rather a literary-ideological one. 6 As a literary-ideological reading, the essay views John as a moment of narrative cultural expression conditioned by its socio-historical setting: for instance, it is a text that is written under imperial Roman conditions, composed for a community seeking its own identity in the world, and, in particular, recognition among its Jewish family members. 7
The essay intends to help religious leaders today reflect on how hospitality in John might reshape our own view and practices. But before proceeding to the Gospel itself, a critical examination of the ancient language of “hospitality” is necessary.
Some Notes on Language
In Greek, the word xenos means “stranger.” The verb xenizen conveys the meaning to “receive as a guest.” 8 In the New Testament, the word philoxenia intimates the joy in the guest-host relationship and its reciprocity. It also refers to the love of strangers. 9 This gratification in the reciprocal guest-host relationship collapses when the expectations of obligations and exchanges cease. When a host welcomes some but not others, hospitality is compromised, and we see a level of differentiation between “host” and “guest.”
The term “hospitality” comes from the Latin hospes (guest), emanating from the word hostis (enemy). 10 Both words suggest “stranger,” with the former (hospes) referring to a “favorable stranger” who becomes a “guest,” while the latter (hostis) signifies a “hostile stranger” who develops into a “guest.” 11 Some scholars have argued that hostis did not always connotate an enemy. A hostis referred to the “contractual relationship of equality and reciprocity with the stranger who lives in the city.” 12 How hostis assumed its negative meaning of “hostile stranger” is unclear. But when it did, another word was needed for the guest: hospes. 13 Thus, the word “hospitality” retains a level of differentiation between the powerful and the vulnerable, those who are inside and those who are outside. In today’s world, the vulnerable outsiders are those who are perceived as “illegal.” This tension between insiders and outsiders results in ambivalent hospitality.
It is not always easy to help others in a hospitable way: to welcome a stranger, quench the thirst and feed the multitudes, or help the vulnerable. What is often missing is the higher value of justice—a theological rhetoric of human rights for all that results in hospitality for all. Ambivalent hospitality is the equivalent of providing lodging and meals for believers but not for those who disagree with you (2 John) or, as in the U.S.A., providing asylum to certain groups of people from certain countries but not for others.
Narrative of Unsettlement: Welcoming the Guest (John 1:1–18)
The Word as Guest
The prologue of John (1:1–18) portrays ambivalent hospitality. The prologue narrates Jesus’s travel, his identity, and how the world will receive him. The Word journeys from the world above (1:1) to the world below (1:14). Portrayed as the Word, Jesus enters a world that the Word himself created (1:3). In a peculiar way, the Word enters the world as a stranger, a guest who is in need of hospitality.
The Word becomes flesh and lives among the people of the world: “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth” (1:14). The love and presence of God is within the Word, and it signals that the Word—Jesus—will play a part not only as guest, but as the supreme host in all hospitable acts in the Gospel. 14 Jesus will embrace the role of host, for he is an obedient son who will also call for obedience among his followers (e.g., 3:35, 5:20, 5:26, 13:15, 34, 15:8–10).
As the prologue indicates, Jesus will encounter strangers and welcome them into his movement, but he himself will not always be welcomed—even by his own people (1:10). The notion of hospitality—although subtle—is surely beneath the surface in the prologue. To live among a people as a stranger, Jesus will aim to reveal himself as the Son of God—to make his Father known. He will take on the role of the ultimate host who holds the power in this story world. It is Jesus who is sent by God into the world (3:16–17), descends from the world above (1:14; 6:38), does the will of God (5:30), gives living water (4:14), gives the bread of life (6:51), makes room for his believers (14:2), and who returns to God, leaving love and the Spirit for the world (14:15–27; 16:27–28). As the host of the world below, Jesus carries out God’s mission.
As the supreme host, Jesus will call the world to belief in him as the unique Son of God who obeys his Father and who will die for the salvation of the world (e.g., 3:15–16; 5:24–25, 29, 34, 39; 11:25; 12:50). As a guest, Jesus waits to be welcomed. Some will receive Jesus, and others will not. This is a manifestation of hospitality. Sometimes people forget that they were once strangers in their own land, and now that they have become hosts, they must decide to welcome new guests. (e.g., Exod 22:21).
The ambivalent hospitality of the prologue will be played out in the remainder of John’s story: Jesus, the stranger from above, will become the host, while others are guests. John challenges readers (then and now) to reflect on their role critically and honestly as host and guest.
Narrative of Travel: Guest Becoming Host (John 1:19–17:26)
The Wedding for Hosts-Guests
Johannine hospitality is present in many scenes throughout this section of the narrative. While Jesus is traveling from place to place and meeting all sorts of people, the act of hospitality changes. For instance, after Jesus collects a following (1:19–51), he arrives in Cana in Galilee for a wedding. Present at the wedding are his mother and his disciples (2:1–12). Jesus is a guest who soon will take on the role of the host.
The issue at hand is that the wine at the wedding has run out (2:3). Jesus, the supreme host, is also a guest at the wedding. The mother of Jesus will request Jesus, as host and guest, to do something about the depletion of the wine. However, Jesus responds that his hour has yet to come (2:4d). Nevertheless, Jesus’s mother tells the servants to do what Jesus tells them (2:5), and Jesus takes on the role of host who provides wine.
The narrator notes that there are six stone jars, each holding twenty to thirty gallons, used for the Jewish rites of purification. Jesus asks the servants to fill the jars to the brim, and then he tells them to draw out the water and take it to the steward of the feast (2:6–8). This act of turning water into wine will be the first sign in the Gospel of John. Jesus honors his mother and his family by providing wine for the wedding. His role as guest-host is ambivalent, but what is clear is that Jesus provides an act of hospitality—an act of benevolence. He offers himself as a gift, and he also offers wine as a guest at a wedding. In a way, this fluctuation of roles of host-guest speaks of being at home in one’s context. Those who know their voice (their privilege) and the implications also can hear the voice and the need of others. In the midst of ambivalence, the seed of unlimited hospitality undoes limited hospitality.
Enter the Stranger
Hospitality toward the stranger is a prolific motif in various biblical traditions. In John 4, this focus emerges with Jesus’s encounter with the Samaritan woman. While Jesus crosses a border into potentially hostile territory with his movement from Judea to Samaria (4:2–3), he encounters a Samaritan woman (4:7). The tension between the Jewish people and the Samaritans stems from issues of cultural purity and religious representation. 15 This historical tension created distance between these two cultural-religious groups, as the narrator suggests (4:9).
Jesus arrives at Jacob’s Well during the hottest part of the day (4:6). The disciples have left to go buy food in the city, leaving Jesus and the Samaritan woman alone (4:8). The well calls to mind other well scenes in the biblical tradition (Gen 24:11; 29:2; Exod 2:16) where betrothals took place. The readers of John would have recognized this trope. The scene between the Samaritan woman and Jesus involves issues of differences in gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and religion between Jesus as the stranger and the Samaritan woman, the potential host.
Giovanni Francesco Guercino (1591–1666), Christ and the Woman of Samaria at the Well. Oil on canvas. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain. Photo Credit Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza / Scala / Art Resource, NY.
When the two meet at the well, Jesus asks for a drink. He is the supreme host who is also also a guest in someone else’s home (4:7). The Samaritan woman is surprised at Jesus’s request and asks: “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (4:9b). The narrator makes it clear that Jews and Samaritans have little in common (4:9c). Answering the question, Jesus indicates that if she only knew to whom she spoke to he would give her “living water” (4:10). On one level, “living water” (4:10) refers to fresh, flowing water, in contrast to the more stagnant water from a well. On the spiritual level, the “living water” of which Jesus spoke was the life-giving water that would give eternal life (4:10). 16 For sure, the two characters are speaking at different levels of meaning.
The Samaritan woman wants to know how Jesus would be able to draw water from the well; the well is deep, and he has nothing with which to draw (4:11). She also asks whether Jesus considers himself greater than Jacob who had originally provided the well (4:12). Jesus answers her question at the literal level first, then quickly moves to the spiritual level. Everyone who drinks from that well will thirst again. Water would have to be drawn again and again. But Jesus offers her the “living water” that would be of such satisfaction that one would never have to drink again (4:13–14). The woman asks Jesus for that water so that she would never have to return to the well for water (4:15). The hostility that existed between Jesus and the Samaritan woman is slowly turning into a hospitable moment, with Jesus moving from a guest to a host. He is a guest/host with a gift of living water.
After the Samaritan’s request for this “living water,” Jesus responds, “Go, call your husband, and come here” (4:16). The woman responds that she has no husband. Jesus responds that she is correct, and that she has had five husbands (4:17–18). As a result of this knowledge, the Samaritan woman infers that Jesus is a prophet and mentions the location of where her people worship (4:19–20). For Jesus, the place to worship is neither in Samaria nor in Jerusalem but rather Jesus himself. Jesus is the Messiah, and true worship begins with belief in Jesus as the Christ (4:22–26). Jesus places no boundaries—he offers a limitless hospitality.
The Samaritan woman takes this gift of salvation to her community and brings them to believe in Jesus (4:39). Interestingly, even with this woman’s past and supposed reputation, she persuades the community to go to Jesus—the stranger.
The disciples return with food, but Jesus’s encounter with the Samaritan woman transcends hunger and thirst. His “food” is doing the will of God who sent him (5:30; 6:38; 7:18; 8:50; 9:4; 10:37, 38; 12:49, 50; 14:31; 15:10; 17:4). And his mission is to bring in the harvest—believers in Jesus’s mission. As the narrative concludes, the result of this encounter with the stranger is bountiful, as many become witnesses to Jesus the Savior of the world (4:39–42).
Hospitality can be challenging at times, especially when engaged with different cultural and religious traditions. John 4:1–45 is a text that shows that the encounters with strangers can challenge one’s notion of hospitality. Even though Jesus has the gift of salvation to give to the Samaritans, they must believe in Jesus as the Savior of the World. 17 The Samaritan woman’s encounter with Jesus and her being accepted and invited to participate in his mission transforms her as a disciple of hospitality: she is in partnership with strangers (Jesus) and partnership with others (her community). Because of Jesus, she conveys hospitality and designs her home, her community, and the world into a space that helps others feel they belong. In this way, she expands the meaning of discipleship to include hospitality.
Partnership with Others (John 13:1–11)
Another manifestation of hospitality is partnership with those who are subordinate to the master-teacher. 18 In John 13:1–11, the classic act of the “master” (Jesus) taking on the role of the “servant” (disciples) is presented here. It is an act of hospitality that expresses the master’s unconditional love for his followers. In fact, the theme of love permeates several chapters and the Johannine letters (13:34–35; 15:12, 17; cf. 1 John 2:7–8, 1 John 3:11–18; 4:7–21; 2 John 5–6). The setting is Passover and, more specifically, the occasion for table fellowship (13:1–5). Furthermore, the actions to follow during supper are in accordance with the Father, since the Father “had given all things into his hands” (13:3; cf. 3:35). In other words, the hospitality that Jesus—the supreme host—is about to show is in accordance with God and his mission as messiah.
While dinner was taking place, Jesus rises and takes off his outer robe and encircles himself with a towel (13:4). In so doing, Jesus, in his appearance, takes on the role of a servant instead of a teacher or master. Jesus then pours water into a basin to wash the disciples’ feet and dries them with the towel. This act of hospitality calls to mind the menial service of a servant compliant in a servant’s humble duty to his master. The servant’s task is not a hospitable act since the servant is doing so out of obligation to his master, but when Jesus, the master/teacher, does it, Jesus is reversing the roles of master and slave/servant and taking on the role of the servant. Jesus’s hospitable act calls all those in power to serve.
Albert Edelfelt, Christ Washing the Feet of the Disciples, 1898. Nationalmuseum Stockholm. HIP / Art Resource, NY
This act of hospitality by Jesus is unheard of, that is, a master washing the feet of his disciples. Peter is surprised and refuses to let Jesus wash his feet. Jesus responds to Peter that he may not understand now, but he will understand later the significance of the act (13:7). Peter says that Jesus will never wash his feet. Jesus responds, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me” (13:8). Peter asks for not only his feet to be washed, but his entire body (13:9). The whole exchange between Jesus and Peter reaffirms that the act of hospitality involves acceptance of certain relational realities. Peter and others (the Johannine community) cannot take part fully of this washing (fellowship) if they are not willing to be washed by Jesus (through his death).
The narrative concludes with Jesus alluding to the cleansing power of his death and resurrection (13:10–11). Jesus knows that his betrayer is in the room (cf. 6:71). Here and elsewhere in John, hospitality comes with risks.
Narrative of Resettlement (18:1–21:25): Host Feeding Believers
Table Fellowship as Hospitality
With the final narrative section of the Gospel, Jesus’s resurrection appearance to the disciples (21:1–14), hospitality involves the miraculous catch of fish followed with table fellowship. The resurrected Jesus appears to his disciples in Galilee as a guest and then moves into the role of host.
In this appearance scene, hospitality appears to have no limits. The beginning of the narrative is set by the Sea of Galilee (21:1). Peter and the other disciples decide to go fishing and fail to catch any fish. Their return to their previous way of life implies that they have returned to their former vocation.
When morning arrived, Jesus stood on the beach (21:4), and the disciples did not recognize the resurrected Jesus. But Jesus addressed the disciples as “Children” (paidia)—a caring (maybe patriarchal) and loving address (cf. 1 John 2:14; 18)—and then asking the disciples whether they caught any fish. The disciples respond, “No” (21:5). So, Jesus instructs them to cast their net on the right side of the boat and assures them that they will catch fish. So, the disciples do what he commands and catch so many fish that they are unable to haul the fish into the boat. This miraculous sign not only provides material hospitality in the form of fish, it also leads to the disciples’ recognition of Jesus. The guest is now the supreme host.
The disciple whom Jesus loved is the one who recognizes him first (cf. 20:18, 25, 28). The miraculous sign helped the Beloved Disciple see the identity of the resurrected Jesus. Peter, impatient for the boat to reach the shore, jumps in the water and swims to Jesus, while the other disciples brought the fish to the shore.
The narrative concludes with another table fellowship event. As host, Jesus starts preparing breakfast on the shore, while the disciples arrive with fish and bread (21:9). This material gift is the same one that he provided to the disciples in miraculous fashion earlier in John (see 6:1–12). Jesus asks for the disciples to bring the fish they caught (all 153 of them) and has breakfast with them (21:10–12).
In these generous acts, Jesus is preparing the disciples to be agents or disciples of hospitality themselves (21:15–19). Jesus facilitates welcoming by providing a miraculous sign of his identity, and the disciples confirm it by having breakfast with him. With this table fellowship, they return in fellowship with Jesus. As long as the disciples recognize who he is and believe in his true identity, they will join in this partnership to the world.
Conclusion
The Gospel of John can contribute to understanding hospitality then and now. By drawing out some manifestations of hospitality, John can help its readers today critically reflect on the theme of hospitality, its values, and its consequences. This initial exploration has examined the power dynamics behind hospitality. Because of the insistence on hospitality in the biblical texts, many believers see a mandate to provide shelter for those sent on buses from the southern border to various northern cities, or provide shelter to climate migrants, or deliver health care to those on the move. But the notion of hospitality is much more complicated than merely providing aid. Hospitality involves power. Hospitality often places conditions: colonizer-colonized, ownership-dispossession, permanency-itinerancy, or citizenship-non-citizenship. And hospitality is often seen as a one-directional act. The host provides benevolence in some fashion to the guest.
But the Gospel of John shows that hospitality can be a two-directional act that calls for both host and guest to give up something or make room for hospitality to have it greatest effect. The host is in a position of power. Some may argue that hospitality may never be achieved because hospitality presupposes a relation of inequality. 19 This may be true. But this does not mean we cannot aspire to hospitality. Hospitality, especially today, calls for self-reflexivity and introspection of one’s role and actions. The Gospel of John, I believe, provides a space for this critical reflection.
Ample texts in the Bible speak to welcoming the guest or stranger. This is an undisputable motif throughout the biblical stories (e.g., Gen 23; Deut 10:18–19; Heb 13:1–2). Welcoming the stranger or those who are different from us is not an easy task. Often the guest or “stranger” (one seen as different from the majoritized) is feared or perceived as one who will threaten a way of life. It is not knowing or recognizing the stranger that scares people.
Sometimes “strangers” do impose their way of living or life upon those already present. One can feed the “stranger,” welcome them into the home, or provide health care to them, but the “stranger” may or may not welcome the hospitality received. British and Spanish colonialism, along with colonial missionaries, were often first received by the indigenous. But the colonizers and missionaries soon imposed their way of being upon those who welcomed them. Hospitality is abused on these occasions and can have dire effects upon the receiving culture.
John’s narrative has various manifestations of hospitality. The manifestations consistently express an ambivalent hospitality in which providing food (ch. 6), helping the lame and blind (ch. 5 and 9), or giving life to others (ch. 11) are acts of hospitality with no limits or boundaries. At the same time, many of these manifestations require belief in Jesus as the Son of God. Giving hospitality is complicated. The Johannine Jesus appears to express this complexity. I highlighted this ambivalence as a way to suggest that John can reshape perceptions and practices of hospitality today. In this age of poverty, homelessness, immigrants without rights, or the sick without health care, it remains important to consider the ethical and ideological implications of hospitality. John helps us to reflect on the present and the implications that accompany humanitarian or hospitable acts in this geo-political world. John shows that hospitality is not without limits, risks, and danger, but John also helps to show that hospitality can be without limits or boundaries. In John’s ironic way, the Gospel proposes an ethics of hospitality without limits and without the necessary belief in Jesus as the Son of God, even as it proposes a politics of hospitality with limits and obligations as with belief in Jesus to receive the great gift of salvation. It is the former understanding of hospitality (ethics of hospitality) that speaks to those welcoming the “stranger” into our country today fairly and humanely, and it is the latter understanding (politics of hospitality) for those who lean toward placing restrictive limits on who can be welcomed.
This dichotomous constructed reality on hospitality is problematic. Such a dichotomous reading can ultimately be employed to include/exclude. However, I would contend that the plot of John itself contains seeds that challenge this binary way of life of providing hospitality. In fact, I propose that the reciprocal (ambivalent) hospitality that involves Jesus as host and guest is the way to respond to any ambivalent notion of hospitality. For this reciprocal hospitality diminishes the power dynamics between host and guest. As the Johannine Jesus as host shows humility toward guests, we also can display humiity toward “strangers.” For the “stranger” has lots to offer as bearer of the image of God in reminding us of our love for one another.