Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or 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
An Interesting Banquet
There is this heartwarming story in the news a few years ago about a couple who were ready to get married and were planning their wedding. They prepared for everything, except for disaster. They picked an interesting date for the wedding: September 26, 2009. It was the day Typhoon Ondoy ravaged Metro Manila.
They prepared a wedding banquet in a plush hotel that unfortunately became inaccessible to a lot of their guests when the streets of Metro Manila became a sea of disaster. Since the banquet had been paid for, the couple decided to donate all the food to the victims of Ondoy. Hundreds of homeless flood victims had a sumptuous meal that night, thanks to the couple who gave their wedding banquet to them.
Filipinos love banquets. We always find reasons to celebrate and have fun with friends and loved ones over food. And given the fiesta culture inherited from our ancestors, we’re used to having even uninvited guests join us for a meal. It is a cultural expectation to ask every person who happens to be in our home when mealtime comes, “kain tayo.” It is an invitation to join a meal. The invitation may not really be serious, but it is the polite thing to say. The polite response of the uninvited guest of course is to politely refuse and say, “tapos na.” Unfortunately, there are those who do take advantage and actually take up the invitation.
But it is a rare thing to have people open up an exclusive banquet to people we do not know. In truth, we would rather invite the people who are close to us. At one time or another, they have invited us to their parties and banquets before, and we expect them to invite us in the future. Or often times the people we invite to a party are those to whom we owe a favor. It is an implicit exchange. We don’t invite people to a party for no reason at all.
It is interesting to study therefore, Jesus teachings about this banquet. His advice is contrary to our normal tendencies. Jesus is saying it is much better to invite to a banquet people who have no capability to pay us back for the favor. and Jesus backs it up by saying there is a reward waiting for us if we do. The implication here is that when we do something good on earth and we are compensated commensurately, we’ve already received our reward or payment. But when we do something good to people who cannot pay us back, God will take care of compensating us for the good we’ve done.
God has created us with various capacities and capabilities that he meant for us to use in doing good in this world. But as we study this passage from Luke 14, I would like you to take notice of the three qualities that Jesus values as we go about doing good in the world.
Do Good without Payment
If you feed your family well, knowing that your children cannot feed themselves as young children, you give them what they need without expectation of payment. You store up rewards in heaven which will be given to you at the resurrection of all followers of Jesus Christ. But if you feed your children, with a condition that they should do their chores, and your kids actually do so fearing hunger, you’ve received your payment in full for the good you’ve done. Do not expect any reward at the resurrection of the righteous.
If you lend money to somebody in need, and you demand immediate payment, it will not count for any great reward from God. What you gave is a loan, a money transaction. If you are paid without interest, at least you’ve given the person a favor, and you may have a reward commensurate to the interest you’ve given up. But if you charge high interest for the loan to a needy person, even the Bible condemns you. But if you give money to the poor, without expectation of being paid back, then you’ve done much good, and you will receive rewards when Jesus returns.
Do Good at a Cost
There is an element of sacrifice when doing good. There is a cost.
It is easy to do good when the cost of doing it is well within our capacity. When we give alms to street children, it is very easy for us to give a five peso coin. It will not hurt our pockets at all so we give without even a thought. But if a poor woman knocks on our door and asks for P100 to buy medicine for her sick child, we stop dead in our tracks.
When we volunteer our time for community service or church ministry, what we often give is our “free time.” When it starts to encroach on our paid time, we shy away.
I am not saying giving P5 is wrong, or volunteering during free time is wrong. What Jesus is saying is that if you desire to receive a reward, then the service you give must cost you something. And it follows that the higher the cost, and the less likely you are compensated for your cost, the higher the reward.
And the appreciation of cost is relative. To a billionaire, P10,000 is small change. But to a laborer it is a fortune. To a person with no responsibility, serving for 8 hours in a week is a breeze. But to a family head with tons of responsibilities, 8 hours of volunteer work is very costly.
Do Good Willingly
There should be an element of willingness in doing good. If you stumble into this thing, and you are simply forced to help, and your heart is not in it, I’m not sure if you deserve any reward.
Service is desired, but not compulsory. God’s perfect will is for us to use our God-given talents and capacities to be used for serving others. We are rewarded for doing so. But we if decide not to, it is not as if God will kick us out of His kingdom. But if we do not participate in God’s work here on earth, we lose out big time! We forfeit the rewards God is preparing for us for eternity.
At this point, the issue of motive comes to fore. When we do good, our focus should not be on the heavenly reward. Do not even think about them, you will simply receive. It is a hope that we can rely on. But our focus should be on Christ, who has given us everything even if we do not deserve his grace. We’ve received much, that is why we can only give much as an act of gratitude, not as an obligation.
God is not expecting us to pay him back for the good he has done to us. Otherwise, it is a mere transaction and God is not given glory for the work of mercy on us. If God is to be glorified, we must not even attempt to pay him back. What God desires, however, because it is what gives him glory, is for us to pay it forward. We become God’s instruments of love, mercy and grace in a hurting and suffering world.
And if we openly declare that we do all that in the name of Jesus Christ, that will give Him back the highest honor, glory and praise.
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