Life in detention: What would Jesus do with Christmas Island? – Part 2

I spent some time in the Christmas Island Immigration Detention centre a few years ago. I met a number of ‘boat people’ who had fled persecution in Sri Lanka. These people were genuine refugees who had fled their homeland seeking protection. Last week I wrote about some of the misconceptions surrounding these people.

The crucial question now is: how should we respond?

How would Jesus respond? Jesus gives firm principles on how to respond to asylum seekers on Christmas Island and his perspectives are found in the Bible.

Tony Abbott once suggested that Jesus wouldn’t have accepted every asylum seeker.  On the ABC TV Q&A program Abbott said: “Jesus was the best man who ever lived but that doesn’t mean that he said yes to everyone”.

Image: Courtesy of Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC)

Is Abbott’s perspective, ‘no, the door is shut’, how Jesus would respond?

The best place to understand Jesus’ position is in the parable of the Good Samaritan in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 10: 25-37). Jesus tells this parable after explaining that the essence of God’s law revolves around loving God and loving your neighbour as yourself. Someone then asks, ‘who is my neighbour’?

Jesus tells a story of how the upstanding religious people, the Levite and the Priest, left a vulnerable man on the road to die. We’re not told their motivation for not helping – they may have wanted to remain pure under Jewish Law; they may have been running late; or they may have just been selfish.

Then the Good Samaritan provides compassionate, costly hospitality and care to someone he wouldn’t have otherwise spoken to – the Jews and Samaritans had a strained relationship at best. Jesus is saying hospitality, generosity and compassion forms part of love to neighbour.

And cost! Care for this unfortunate man was very costly to the Samaritan. He gave up his time to tend to him; he took him to an inn on his own donkey; he paid for him to receive full care out of his own money; every expense was paid for.

Compassionate, costly care shapes Jesus’ response to vulnerable refugees who are fleeing danger and persecution.

Hypocrisy of our response.

Another contour of Jesus’ response may be found in Mark chapter 3 (3:1-6) where Jesus was confronted with a man who had a shrivelled hand. Jesus was confronted with this man on the Sabbath and according to the Pharisee’s law it would have been illegal for Jesus to heal the man. Jesus turns to the people opposed to him and says, ‘Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?’ Jesus’ question exposed the hypocritical attitude of the people who really didn’t care for the plight of the man concerned.

Jesus could have waited to heal the man the next day, but instead he healed the man there and then fully expecting the hypocritical reaction of the people. The people didn’t say, ‘oh it’s so great that this man was healed, but it’s a shame our Sabbath laws were bent’. No. These people wanted to kill Jesus. They put legalistic observance ahead of care and compassion.

I think this shapes Jesus’ response to those who enter our waters unauthorised. Our nation’s reaction is generally not ‘I wish there wasn’t a queue so I could help you’. No. The greedy and selfish hearts of Australians are exposed as these ‘queue jumpers’ are condemned for escaping from a life-wasting wait in third world squalor.

Jesus’ response to Christmas Island

This is a very brief exploration into Jesus’ response to asylum seekers. To summarise…

Jesus’ response is hospitable; where refugees are welcomed and cared for. Jesus’ response is compassionate; where practical love is provided to those in need. Jesus’ response is generous; where the cost, regardless of how great, is met.

This provides a firm basis for response because it’s about following Jesus who reveals God and the right way to live.

At this point we are at odds with Tony Abbott’s perspective on Jesus. Yet I think that Jesus would disagree with Abbott’s opinion as our nation’s political analysts have also observed. This was highlighted by Peter Van Onselen in April 2010 who was critical of both Abbott and the then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. He writes,

“I find it disappointingly inconsistent that both of our political leaders, Rudd and Tony Abbott, wear their religion on their sleeves, yet neither of them practises the compassion that Christianity extols when it comes to boatpeople.”

Perhaps politics has unfortunately muddied Tony Abbott’s (and Kevin Rudd’s) reflections on Jesus and boat people?

What would Jesus say about Christmas Island?

So what would Jesus say about Christmas Island? How would Jesus respond?

The Bible provides clear principles on how to respond.

Jesus would adopt a stance which loves our neighbour; a stance which welcomes refugees and the vulnerable and a stance where we are willing to bear the cost.

Jesus’ stance is diametrically opposed to the common selfish objections of modern Australia; a country which is rich and wealthy, but not welcoming, compassionate or generous. The excuses our nation often provides sound like the excuses the Priest and the Levite could have used to abandon the man in need.

Remember Jesus’ words, ‘Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? The expert in the law replied, ‘The one who had mercy on him’. Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise’.

Food for thought.

Food For Thought is a public theology & Bible advocacy blog from Sophia Think Tank, gathering top Christian thinkers to take a closer look at how the Christian faith addresses matters in society at large every week.

Robert Martin is the Melbourne Director for City Bible Forum.