Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost: Gospel, Luke 14:1-14                                

Luke 14:1-14

Beautiful and challenging are the words of this week’s gospel reading. From first to last.  The compassion of God, the Lord, so beautifully expressed in the first portion. And we encounter it in the latter section as well. But there with a challenge that perhaps we let slip past. 

Jesus deals with invitations given for a feast. And He is teaching that how we see ourselves will affect where we “place” ourselves in the order of guests invited. “Don’t think too highly of yourself,” is the gist of our Lord’s teaching. Rather take the place of the humble one (and mean it), because in the scope of God’s invitation to His great feast that is coming, we surely have nothing to bring to the table. Literally nothing.

More to it. Jesus’ challenge even goes beyond our self-assessment to those whom we might choose were we to host the feast. Tread and read carefully. Verse 13 reads, “But when you (emphasis mine), 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.”

I bring the thought forward again regarding how we see ourselves. Here Jesus changes direction by moving us to see in these “unfortunates” listed, ourselves. For we are those who cannot repay the Master of the feast. Would we invite those He has invited to our table? The answer is telling, to be sure. Before Him we are the poor, maimed, lame, and blind.

Blessed we are to invite such to our table. Infinitely blessed we are to be part of that crowd invited to His. If we see ourselves rightly, we have learned a great lesson. God be praised!