Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” Luke 14:12-14
“Even though the poor are often rough and unrefined, we must not judge them from external appearance nor from the mental gifts they seem to have received. On the contrary, if you consider the poor in the light of faith, then you will observe that they are taking the place of the Son of God who chose to be poor… Since Christ willed to be poor, he chose for Himself disciples who were poor. He made Himself the servant of the poor and shared their poverty.
He went so far as to say that he would consider every deed which either helps or harms the poor as done for or against Himself. Since God surely loves the poor, he also loves those who love the poor…It is our duty to prefer service of the poor to everything else and to offer such service as quickly as possible…”
Vincent de Paul (1581-1660) in Letter 2546 as recounted Milton Walsh in Witness of the Saints: Patristic Readings in the Liturgy of the Hours (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2012) 607.
Jesus has visited the house of Pharisee for a meal when He says these words. Consider the implications. He’s with someone who has given his life to knowing the Scriptures and following them to the letter.
In that setting Jesus say not to invite not family, friends, and rich neighbors to such gatherings. He says to bless those who cannot repay you. And He personally promises to repay those who do at the resurrection of the righteous.
Vincent echoes this and adds color to it. These people will be rough and unrefined. Their appearance or mental gifts will not draw us to them. Think about it. Jesus chose a manger over a mansion. He willed to be poor.
So I want to issue you a challenge this Christmas. Estimate how much you will spend on family, friends, and giving to your rich neighbors, that includes your local church as most churches have abundant resources. Look at that amount.
Now look at how much you are spending to build up and help out those who cannot ever repay you. Some poor might be local to you. Others may represent the least of these in the poor corners of the world.
Don’t the give them a hand out that creates dependency. Give them a hand up that builds disciples. Notice, Jesus does not say to give them a bag of food. He wants you to invite them in and treat them like family.
Join me and GTP in serving majority world workers. They are poor. When we serve them God sees. We treat them like family and they go from crying for help to running locally sustained ministries not dependent on outside support.
Want to meet some of them? Join me for GTP Monthly Global Prayer Hour tomorrow at this link at 3am Pacific / 4am Mountain / 5am Central / 6am Eastern Time on Wednesday 20 December 2023 at this link. Meeting ID: 820 2592 7614. Passcode: PRAY.
And I promise you this. If you include GTP in your year-end giving by clicking here, which resources us to build up 6,706 stewards in 133 countries, you can expect repayment at the resurrection of the righteous.
And pray with us for God to supply $173,000 to activate that 5-year, $1.25 million capacity building grant from 2024-2028. The need was $250,ooo, a few weeks ago so we are making progress, but we have a long way to go.
And so cool, a worker we trained in our “When Money Goes on Mission” courses this last month was so grateful, she and her husband pitched in $50 from Belize. Gifts have come from 25 countries.
Don’t rise to the challenge because I said so. Do it because when Jesus was at a festive party, He gave us these clear instructions. Give generously. Help the rough and unrefined who cannot repay you. Join me in treating them like family.
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