Which Borders are Christian?
Where Did Early Christians Think Their Borders Were?
There is often talk about what Christians should think about citizenship, what Christians should think about immigration, what Christians should think about national borders.
Just this week, during a press gaggle, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson was asked this question: "Pope Leo has cited Matthew 25:35 to critique Donald Trump's mass deportation agenda. How would you respond to Pope Leo in scripture?" (Matthew 25:35: "...for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me....") Johnson gave a tw0-minute response, and then later a longer statement on his social media, in which he said "borders and walls are biblical, from the Old Testament to the New." The rest of the answer was convoluted, trying to reconcile the biblical injunction to welcome the stranger with the responsibility the Bible gives to civil authorities (in Johnson's view) to maintain order, etc.
All of this is, to some extent, an exercise in missing the point. Do go and read Matthew 25:31-46, and I think you'll see what I mean. Johnson seems to think this is an "individual ethic," not a civic responsibility. That's a clever way of getting around the law of Christ, an artful way of avoiding the cost of discipleship, in my view.
But it raises a deeper question: which borders are Christian borders? Is there a Christian approach to bordered territory?
In thinking about that question, I like to ask what my ancestors said, and yes, what the New Testament especially has to say on the matter.
I think of Jesus: "Pilate replied, 'I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?' Jesus answered, 'My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom belonged to this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.'" (John 18:35-36)
I think of Paul: "But our citizenship [or, commonwealth] is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." (Philippians 3:20)
I think of the author of Hebrews: "All of these [Abel, Enoch, Abraham, and Sarah] died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better homeland, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them." (Hebrews 11:13-16)
But I also think about what other early Christians said about who they took themselves to be. And I think about a passage from a text from sometime in the second or third century of Christianity, called the Letter to Diognetus. The author addresses the letter to "most excellent Diognetus," whoever that may be, who has apparently asked to learn more about who these Christians are and what their way of life is. Now, there's a fair bit of anti-Jewishness in the letter, too, because Christians were trying to distinguish themselves from Jews in this period. The author is trying to show Diognetus that they are neither Jews nor Gentiles, but a "new race or way of life." But what I really find striking is this passage from chapter 5:
For Christians are not distinguished from the rest of humanity by country, language, or custom. For nowhere do they live in cities of their own, nor do they speak some unusual dialect, nor do they practice an eccentric way of life. This teaching of theirs has not been discovered by the thought and reflection of ingenious people, nor do they promote any human doctrine, as some do. But while they live in both Greek and barbarian cities, as each one's lot was cast, and follow the local customs in dress and food and other aspects of life, at the same time they demonstrate the remarkable and admittedly unusual character of their own citizenship. They live in their own countries, but only as nonresidents; they participate in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign country is their fatherland, and every fatherland is foreign. ...They live on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven.
The early Christians, according to this author, were cosmopolitans in their daily lives: the cosmos (the whole word) was their polis (home-city), cosmopolitans. They noted the borders mortals draw. But they thought they were irrelevant. "They live in their own countries, but only as nonresidents; they participate in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign country is their fatherland, and every fatherland is foreign." This is not a case for open borders, but it is a repudiation of the notion of a "Christian nation," and of the notion that borders are biblical. Because it is a declaration of the irrelevance of borders. It's an affirmation that borders are always secondary, that our allegiance as Christians is not to any set of borders except those of the kingdom of God, and no one has yet been able to measure those borders. Christians have from our earliest days pledged our allegiance first and foremost to the kingdom in which our common humanity and our common status under God is what is most important. And in that situation, there is no line between individual responsibility and civic responsibility. What God requires of us is required of us no matter which borders we currently inhabit.
And what does the Lord require of us, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God. (Micah 6:8) We cannot claim to be God's people and condone cruel enforcement of unjust laws. We cannot walk humbly with our God if we are determined to make God say only what we want God to say and to assure ourselves that God underwrites all of our vicious fantasies. We cannot claim to be Christian while wielding the sword against our neighbors. We cannot be God's wandering people if we've decided this land is God's land, our land, and that those borders must be policed with cruelty.
I'll remind you again of what St. Paul says: "Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery; you shall not murder; you shall not steal; you shall not covet,' and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law."
