33
RESURRECTION BLESSINGS Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just (Luke 14:12-14).
This continues Jesus' sermon at the feast. Here He directed His remarks to the Pharisee who had invited Him. Jesus' words assumed that hosting a feast is an investment in the future. There will be a return on this investment. The question is: When? Once again, Jesus focused on time vs. eternity. People naturally seek rewards in history. This is a mistake whenever history and eternity are in conflict.
This feast was being held on the sabbath (Luke 14:1). Temporally self-interested work was forbidden on the Jewish sabbath (Ex. 20:10). To be lawful, this feast had to be a means of service to others. When making a feast on behalf of others, Jesus said, invite only those who cannot pay you back in history. Use the feast to give pleasure exclusively to others. Do not use it as a way to get invited to other feasts. To do so is to turn your feast into a worldly investment.
Jesus was saying that He would not be in a position to repay the host in history. Jesus was one of the poor. He enjoyed a kind of notoriety, but this notoriety would soon be of a negative variety. He was a celebrity, but not one whom Pharisees would choose to associate with in His final days before the resurrection. In this sense, Jesus belonged at the feast, but this was not why He had been invited.
The Sabbath The feast was being held on the sabbath. Jesus healed a man at the feast. The Pharisees and lawyers at the feast were told by Jesus that this was lawful because the healing was the equivalent of an act of mercy to a domesticated animal (vv. 1-7).
A Pharisee was holding a feast on the sabbath. Was this feast an act of mercy? Jesus indicated that it was more of an investment than an act of mercy. If it had been strictly an act of mercy, the Pharisee would have invited only poor people who were in no position to return the favor. This feast was self-serving. The host expected to enjoy invitations to many feasts in the future. He had invited people of his own status.
Temporally self-interested work is a misuse of the sabbath. Jesus said at the time of the healing that what distinguishes lawful work from unlawful work is the economic status of the act. To pull an ox out of a well is an act of mercy, even if it is your ox. The animal is in need of assistance. The dependence of the animal on the rescuer is what identifies the act of mercy.
Jesus then healed the man. The man was not in a position to return the favor. Jesus' act was an act of mercy. All of His sabbath healings were acts of mercy. Not only was He not compensated by those whom He healed, the very act of healing got Him in trouble with the religious authorities (Luke 6:11).
Jesus identified this feast as a temporally self-interested act. For a feast to be an act of mercy, it should not benefit the host except insofar as he understands the general principle, that it is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35). The host should make the expenditure because he seeks the benefit of the attendees. The mark of such a self-sacrificing feast is the low economic status of the attendees.
A Future Return Once again, Jesus announced the legitimacy of a quest for blessings. Invite the poor to your feast, He said, "And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just" (v. 14). The reward that is most worth seeking in history is the reward that will come beyond history. History is the arena for investing; eternity is the crucial arena for recompence, although not the only one.(1) Men sow in history and reap both in history and eternity. What they sow determines what they will reap. "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting" (Gal. 6:7-8). How much they sow determines how much they shall reap. "But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully" (II Cor. 9:6).
It takes considerable faith to accept this dogma. It begins with faith in the resurrection of the dead. The Pharisees, unlike the Sadducees, believed in the resurrection of the dead. "For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both" (Acts 23:8). Jesus was in the home of a Pharisee, and Pharisees were attending the feast. He could safely assume that they all believed in the resurrection.
Next, it takes faith in legal cause and effect. Specifically, it takes faith in God's bestowing of final rewards in terms of men's acts in history. Men will reap eternally what they have sown in history.
Third, it takes extreme future-orientation, i.e., a low personal interest rate. Men should not discount the present value of eternal rewards to the point of so little value that they will not live righteously in the present, foregoing present benefits for the sake of eternal rewards. In the chapter on faith, the author of Hebrews praised Moses' future-orientation: "By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible" (Heb. 11:24-27).
Jesus warned His listeners that they were not living in terms of eternity. The feast itself testified to their short-sightedness. They were in the habit of attending each other's feasts. So popular was this practice among them that the host had scheduled his feast for the sabbath. He knew that he would not be criticized for this by his strict sabbatarian peers. Jesus became his critic. The host was being short-sighted. He was not taking the rewards of the final resurrection seriously enough. The way to increase these rewards is to hold feasts for the poor and crippled and blind. These guests cannot provide earthly rewards. To entertain them is to declare publicly one's commitment to rewards beyond history.
Social Mixing The host was a man of prominence. He was a religious leader. His guest list reflected this position. Jesus told the listeners that they should step out of their tight-knit social circles and invite people with a much lower social status.
Such a mixed social event is rare in any society. People do not normally associate with those outside their own social circles. There are a few exceptions. The English landed aristocracy used to invite their poor tenants for a Christmas celebration. But, in general, such events are rare or nonexistent.
Men find it uncomfortable to mix with people who are in a different income bracket or social status. They do not know how to act. They are afraid of saying or doing something inappropriate. There is a sense of being "a fish out of water." Lower-class groups are especially uncomfortable. They are unlikely to invite the rich into their homes for a feast. They do not have the economic resources, including space, to become hosts. They also fear being regarded by their peers as social climbers -- "putting on airs." So, the initiative to mix socially must come from those in the higher classes. They must send out the invitations.
The archetype of downward social mixing for the sake of personal exaltation in the future is Jesus Christ. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:5-11). His willingness to mix with the likes of fallen men was the basis of His post-resurrection exaltation as a perfect man.
Conclusion The host of a feast has the authority to decide who will be invited. Jesus warned His upper-class listeners to invite social undesirables to their feasts. Let those with no opportunity to attend a feast enjoy a shared banquet. This means spending money on those who cannot repay. It means associating with a different class of people, which is uncomfortable at first. It means being regarded by one's peers as "putting on airs," not by upward social climbing but by downward social climbing. By familiar social standards, such a feast is an aberration.
Why do this? Jesus did not say that this would be for the benefit of the poor. He said that it would be for the benefit of the rich. This was not obvious to His listeners. He said that this is a way for a rich man to increase his eternal rewards. He turned rich men's thoughts toward eternity.
The host should look to his eternal future. He should assess the present value of an eternal reward. What is the future value of God's promised reward? We are not told. We know only that Jesus recommends this above investing in a feast where we invite our friends. Our future reward for hosting a feast for the poor should be worth more to us today than the hope of future dinner invitations from our friends. Rewards in eternity exceed the value of rewards in history by so much that they should have a higher present value when discounted by a decision-maker's current rate of interest.
Footnote:
1. "And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God's sake, Who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting" (Luke 18:29-30).
If you are interested in receiving Dr. North's FREE monthly e-mail newsletter send an e-mail to:
If this book helps you gain a new understanding of the Bible, please consider sending a small donation to the Institute for Christian Economics, P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711. You may also want to buy a printed version of this book, if it is still in print. Contact ICE to find out.