The Odyssey: The importance of welcoming strangers

With Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey out now, Captain Chris Button reflects on the importance of hospitality.

When we stop showing hospitality to strangers, we start to lose our identity. This is the message of Christopher Nolan’s new take on The Odyssey. Homer’s Odyssey is one of the oldest stories in the western world. There have been dozens of translations, adaptations and stories based on the tale of a complicated man trying to find his way home after using cunning and deception to end a decade-long war.

The law of Zeus

In the film, characters talk about the ‘law of Zeus’. This law is the main driving force behind the catastrophes that Odysseus survives on his journey home. The law of Zeus required people to welcome a stranger and show them hospitality, because they never knew whether the stranger was a god in disguise.

The film repeatedly shows the consequences of breaching hospitality. Odysseus and his men become increasingly destructive and cruel, pillaging and killing, turning on each other, breaking every rule they once held to be sacred. Their fall into barbarism began with a single choice. That choice, intentional or otherwise, was to stop seeing strangers as people.

What does the Bible say about welcoming the stranger?

The importance of hospitality is built into Christianity as well. Hebrews 13:2 says: ‘Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it’ (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition). Welcome people, show them hospitality, because you never know if a stranger will turn out to be an angel in disguise.

But this isn’t just about giving a visitor a cup of tea and a biscuit. It goes deeper, right to the heart of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

How we treat the stranger reveals who we are, just as Circe in The Odyssey reveals the truth about Odysseus’s men. How we treat people we don’t know, we have no connection to and who are nothing like us shows what kind of person we are. It is easy to care about people we know or who are like us. But caring about the stranger? That can be incredibly difficult. It goes against some of our most basic instincts. Our brain is designed to make us wary and untrusting of strangers, because strangers can be dangerous. Our pain, our suffering and our trauma can all make it more difficult to trust strangers. That’s what happened to Odysseus and his men. We need God’s help to overcome it. That’s what holiness is about.

The Bible tells us to treat strangers as if they were angels, to love our enemies and, like the good Samaritan, to care for people in need. St Benedict wrote in his ‘rule’ for monks that they should treat every stranger as if they were Christ.

Imagine what the world would be like if we all treated strangers as if they were Christ. Everything would be different. But that odyssey has to start with us – with our relationship with God, and with the small choices we make every day.

Reflect and respond

• Reflect on Hebrews 13:2 and Matthew 25:35–40.
• What does hospitality look like to you?
• What would it mean to treat strangers as if they are Christ?
• What can your corps do to show hospitality to people in your community?
• What can you do to welcome new people on a Sunday as if they were Christ?