Daily Grace
One passage. One idea. A few quiet minutes. Short devotional readings for people being formed by grace, written from a small chair beside still water in Falcon, Colorado.
Pull one up. Read slowly. There is no hurry here.
Who Cannot Repay You
Not metaphorically. Actually. Think about the last five people you had a meal with, and what they believe, and how they vote, and what they earn.
"But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind." (Luke 14:13)
Look at who is at your table. Not metaphorically. Actually. Think of the last five people you shared a meal with, what they believe, how they vote, what they earn. Now think about who is missing. Jesus says something about this that we have quietly agreed to ignore. When you throw a dinner, he says, do not invite your friends, or your brothers, or your relatives, or your rich neighbors, because they will invite you back and you will be repaid. Invite the people who cannot repay you.
That is the whole test, and it is a brutal one, because almost every relationship any of us keeps is, at some level, an exchange. I give and I get. And the moment someone stops being able to give anything back, we drift, and we do not even notice we are drifting, and we would never call it what it is.
A table where everyone can repay you is not hospitality. It is a business lunch with a tablecloth. Real hospitality begins exactly where the possibility of return ends, with the guest who has nothing to offer you but their presence and their need. So ask the uncomfortable question. Who cannot repay you? Who has dropped off your calendar precisely because they ran out of anything to trade? Find one of them, and set a place, and let the meal cost you something you will never get back. That is the feast Jesus was talking about.