As we head towards a Federal Election, Jesus’ story of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25 challenges us to consider our treatment of asylum seekers. Jesus says that those who enjoy salvation will include those who welcome the stranger.

A lot of the conversation about “strangers” in Australia is about keeping them away, not welcoming them. As human rights expert, Rafendi Djamin, reminded us on the ABC’s Q&A programme recently, we are more concerned about border protection than we are about human protection.

Being so narrowly focused, we put the spotlight on thousands of people heading to Australia but ignore the tens of millions of refugees and displaced people all over the world. We also ignore the forces that cause people to leave their homes in the first place.

The words of Jesus in Matthew’s gospel represent the definitive teaching of what God expects of his disciples. He makes a point of saying his words are directed to “all the nations”.

Jesus says that our first priority needs to be to care for those who need care, not for those who we judge to be “deserving”. This is a critical difference between Christ-like thinking and the everyday thinking of the world. Our welcome to the stranger is to be openly shared in abundance.

A few weeks ago I met a Lebanese Christian in Beirut called Milat. He had taken in a Syrian Sunni woman and her two sons who had no place to call home. He explained that he supported President Assad as most Christians in the region do but the woman and her sons were praying fervently for the rebels’ victory. Genuinely surprised, I asked how he could live with such political tension and provide food and shelter for them with no end to the conflict in sight. He shrugged and said they are fellow humans.

I was moved and wondered how many Australians would respond like that. It stunned me to think that with an estimated 550,000 Syrian refugees now in Lebanon, a country of just 4.3 million people, that thousands of Lebanese like Milat have taken these refugees into their homes without question.

It gave me hope and perspective. If only our leaders could meet Milat: a man who lives out the compassion of Jesus by welcoming the stranger.