Dinner guests

Then He also said to him who invited Him, "When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbours, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just." – Luke 14.12-14

There is quite a challenge here. When invited to dinner Jesus used the time for a teaching opportunity. ‘When you give a dinner don’t invite your family or your wealthy neighbours, because they will invite you in return and pay you back for feeding them. Instead invite the people to dinner who can’t do anything to pay you back. Invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind instead.’

While this is a great truth in and of itself, I think the principle behind it is even more interesting.

The key lesson here is that we don’t do things in order to get in return. We don’t just help those who can do something for us. In fact, we do better if we purposefully do for those who can’t do anything for us.

It is easy to do things for those who can pay us back. It is easy for us to feed family, and friends, and neighbours. It is easy to have a dinner and invite all the right people.

But when is the last time we chose to feed or entertain those who need in the most? When is the last time we did something for those who have no hope of paying us back?

When we do things for those who can’t return the favour we may not have any immediate reward. But we can be assured that God’s blessing is on us and we will one day have our repayment.