On a sabbath
Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees. He said to the
host who invited him, “When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your
friends or your brothers or sisters or your relatives or your wealthy
neighbors, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. Rather,
when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind;
blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you
will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
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Reflection:
Who do you normally
invite when you have a banquet in your home?
The leading
Pharisee who invited Jesus obviously was well known and powerful. Thus we could
surmise that his circle of friends was naturally well known and powerful also.
And Jesus knew about this that’s why Jesus gave the Pharisee something to think
about or food for thought as far as inviting guest is concerned.
Jesus said to
him; when you have a lunch or a dinner. Do not invite your friends or your
brothers or sisters or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors. Rather, when
you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. Wow!
This is very hard to do for the Pharisee and for us as well!
How could we
invite them when they are not inside our circle of friends? How could we invite
them when most of them live in an environment foreign to our environment? How
could we invite them when they are not externally presentable and there are
many more reasons not to invite them.
If we don’t
invite them, we are judging them already based on what we see about them. And
most of the time what we see on them is unpleasant and not worthy for our very
judgmental eyes. But we don’t see the heart of the poor, the lame, the cripple,
the lame and the blind. If only we could see what’s in their hearts, it’s none
other than Jesus, Jesus dwells in their hearts.
Let us
seriously take note of these teachings of Jesus because when we invite them we
are actually inviting Jesus to come to our home. – Marino J. Dasmarinas
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