Request your free, three-month trial to Tabletalk magazine. You’ll receive the print issue monthly and gain immediate digital access to decades of archives. This trial is risk-free. No credit card required.
Try Tabletalk NowAlready receive Tabletalk magazine every month?
Verify your email address to gain unlimited access.
Luke 14:12–14
“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” (vv. 13–14).
God’s kingdom subverts worldly expectations, calling its citizens not to live according to the values of the unbelieving culture but to embody an ethic at odds with much of the thinking and practice of the world. It could not be otherwise, for the very King of the heavenly kingdom did not act like worldly kings and exploit His position for the sake of His own advantage. Instead, He humbled Himself and came to earth as a servant. He did not exalt Himself but was exalted by the Father because of His self-humbling (Phil. 2:5–11).
In the parable of the wedding feast, Christ stressed the kingdom value of humility, exhorting us not to exalt ourselves but to take the lowest place in the kingdom (Luke 14:7–11). This runs contrary to the world’s way of doing things, for sinners tend to seek their own advancement at all costs, pursuing their own good even at the expense of others (see Luke 22:24–27). In today’s passage, Jesus tells a parable that focuses on another kingdom value—generosity to those who cannot repay in kind.
During the first century, gift-giving was highly reciprocal. That is, people tended to give gifts only to those who they knew would be able to give a gift back in return. Invitations to meals were limited to family and friends, members of the same social class who could be counted on to eventually return the invitation when they held a feast. These kinds of relationships are not necessarily wicked in every instance, but they put a limit on generosity. How truly giving are we if we give only to those who will give back to us?
Full generosity, on the other hand, is displayed when we give to those who cannot repay us. Jesus tells us not to invite those who can repay our generous invitations but to invite people to our feasts who cannot return our generosity (Luke 14:12–14). Our Savior, of course, is not absolutely forbidding generous deeds and gifts to those who can repay in kind; rather, His point is that we have not done something worthy of a reward unless we are also giving to those who cannot give to us on this side of glory. John Calvin comments, “Those who are kind to relatives and friends, but are [not generous] towards the poor, are entitled to no commendation; because they do not exercise charity, but consult only their own gain or ambition.”
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
The fullest generosity that we can express is in giving to those who cannot repay us. While it is not necessarily wrong to give to those who are able to reciprocate, if we give only to those who can return our generosity, then we have not followed the example of Christ, who gave all that He had for the sake of those who can never repay His kindness.
for further study
- Deuteronomy 15:7–11
- Proverbs 19:17
- Matthew 6:1–4
- 1 Timothy 6:17–19
the bible in a year
- Psalms 44–46
- Acts 25