Luke 14:12-14 Then said he also to him that bade him, When you make a dinner or a supper, call not your friends, nor your brothers… Our Lord does not here enjoin neglecting and refraining from one's friends, kinsfolk, and neighbours, to entertain only the poor, maimed, halt, and blind. What He says is, when you make a dinner or supper — that is, as He immediately explains, a feast — let it be, not for those with whom you are accustomed to associate, but rather for the destitute and forlorn outside your circle. It is a question, you see, not at all of social fellowship, but of expenditure, and of the objects to which our great expenditures should be devoted. When you would lavish trouble and money, says Christ, let the lavishing be, not for your own personal gratification, not with the view of securing some enjoyment or obtaining some benefit for yourself, but for the blessing of others. The point on which the whole admonition turns, and to which it refers, is largeness of outlay. This is obvious. Our Lord is thinking and speaking, not of, an ordinary meal such as might be spread any day, but of a feast, like the "great supper" of the parable that follows: and remember the occasion of His words, the circumstances under which they were uttered. He was dining on the Sabbath, in the house of one of the chief Pharisees, who had Him to eat Bread with him; and everything indicates that it was no common dinner at which He was present, but an entertainment on a large scale, got up probably with much pains, and regardless of cost. Christ noticed, we are told, how those who were bidden chose out the chief rooms; nay, such were the unseemly contests among the guests for precedence, and the rude struggling for the best places, which He witnessed, that when at last the tumult had subsided, and all were arranged, He could not forbear remarking on it in tones of rebuke. Evidently the meal was a grand affair, a banquet numerously attended and by many notable and distinguished persons. Contemplating, as He sat there, the profusion, the sumptuousness; picturing what it had cost — the amount of money, labour, and worry, and perhaps sacrifice, that had been expended on it — and penetrating that it was all mainly for selfish ends, with the idea and in the hope of some advantage through it; Christ turns His great mournful eyes upon the many with the words: "When you would make such another feast as this, my friend, at so much trouble and cost, instead of calling to it your rich friends, who are likely to recompense you for it, you should call to it the destitute and afflicted, who are unable to recompense you, and thus be blessed at the resurrection of the just." The inner point and spirit of which form of words was this: "Ah! my friend, it is a mistake to make your great outlays of strength and treasure with a view to your own gratification and aggrandisement, for it is poor recompense at the best, after all. These great outlays should be reserved rather to meet the needs and ameliorate the unfortunate condition of others; for the blessing of that, though more ethereal and less palpable, is infinitely more worth. You should not burden yourself to win ought of present enjoyment or acquisition for yourself. If you burden yourself at all, it should be to supply some want or serve some interest of the necessitous around you." And the lesson remains for us. Let your extensive expenditures, your toils and worries, and hardships and sacrifices, be for those outside who require ministry, rather than for yourself. When it is a question of your own personal amusement or pleasure, of your own worldly comfort or gain, be content to spend but little; don't make a fuss, or lie awake anxiously, or go out of your way for that. If you do so at all, do it when the welfare of others is concerned, when there are others to be succoured or saved by it; reserve for such ends the incurring of heavy cost, the taking on of heavy burdens of thought and care. (S. A. Tipple) Parallel Verses KJV: Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee. |
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