A Payday of the Just

Luke 14:12-14

How often at school, work, or even at church was a question directed at someone other than you and you were so thankful it was not addressed to you?  Why, because you had not anticipated the question, or maybe you were clueless to what the correct answer is to the question.  Jesus asks a lot of questions of those who He encountered, and one such question He ask of the Pharisees who had invited Him to dinner.  “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid.”  (Luke 14:12 ESV)

I know how to answer the question; yes, Jesus is there something wrong with having my friends, brothers or relatives, even my rich neighbors?   If that is the way you responded did Jesus answer?   In Luke’s account the Pharisees did not answer, but Jesus did.  “But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”  (Luke 14:13-14 ESV)

A foolish person might say; Jesus you do understand I’ve worked hard and You have blessed me and I no longer live among the under resourced, I do not work around them, to be totally honest; I do not know many who fall in that group. 

But Jesus cares little if you enjoy dinner with friends, neighbors, relatives, or even the rich, but your return on that investment is not eternal, for as Jesus stated so clearly, they can and will return the invitation.  Investing in the under resourced often from a worldly view looks like putting your resources in a black hole with no bottom, but Jesus who tells the truth tells all of us; “For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice