Hey Everyone,
This is my reflection of today's Gospel.
This is of Saint Luke's Gospel. Here, Jesus teaches that we should go out into the streets and invite the poor - indeed the poorest of the poor.
Bring the poorest to the feast - and by such we may understand Jesus means the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven.
I know that many people who love Christ have what I would call rationalizations about Jesus' teachings on riches and poverty. God knows, my reflections on the Bible are just from my little way.
Anyway,
My audio / reading is on my site here - please visit, please share: https://wordaloud.co.uk/audio/kjv/daily-bible-verses-when-you-feast-invite-the-poor-neighbours/gospel-of-saint-luke/
The KJV text and my reflection go like this:
12 ¶ 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.
13 But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind:
14 And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.
A ruler of the Pharisees has invited Jesus to his house to share a meal, and here Jesus teaches those present concerning the way of blessedness. Jesus teaches us how to live so as to be as much like Jesus as we can be, and so to be included in the Kingdom of God. This, our heavenly reward, should be the only reward we look for.
The normal custom was to share table fellowship with friends and relatives. So it is now. To share a meal represented a great bond of trust between people – ironic here, as the Pharisees hold their silence and study Jesus; and we may think also of Judas Iscariot’s violation of this trust at the Last Supper.
Jesus tells us to break open this closed circle of friendship and mutual interest, and to invite the poor, the sick, the socially excluded. This was unheard of: nobody would wish to share a meal with an unknown person. Yet this is charity.
Jesus tells his listeners that the reason they will be blessed for inviting such people is precisely because they have no way to repay them. This is to give without thought of a return. It is totally gratuitous.
To give in this way brings happiness. Jesus says it is the happiness which God will give us in the resurrection, the resurrection which comes not only at the end of history, but even now. To act in this way is already a resurrection: our way of being has opened to a greater reality; we have been reborn.
19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight. (Colossians 1: 19-22)
This is my reflection of today's Gospel.
This is of Saint Luke's Gospel. Here, Jesus teaches that we should go out into the streets and invite the poor - indeed the poorest of the poor.
Bring the poorest to the feast - and by such we may understand Jesus means the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven.
I know that many people who love Christ have what I would call rationalizations about Jesus' teachings on riches and poverty. God knows, my reflections on the Bible are just from my little way.
Anyway,
My audio / reading is on my site here - please visit, please share: https://wordaloud.co.uk/audio/kjv/daily-bible-verses-when-you-feast-invite-the-poor-neighbours/gospel-of-saint-luke/
The KJV text and my reflection go like this:
12 ¶ 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.
13 But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind:
14 And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.
A ruler of the Pharisees has invited Jesus to his house to share a meal, and here Jesus teaches those present concerning the way of blessedness. Jesus teaches us how to live so as to be as much like Jesus as we can be, and so to be included in the Kingdom of God. This, our heavenly reward, should be the only reward we look for.
The normal custom was to share table fellowship with friends and relatives. So it is now. To share a meal represented a great bond of trust between people – ironic here, as the Pharisees hold their silence and study Jesus; and we may think also of Judas Iscariot’s violation of this trust at the Last Supper.
Jesus tells us to break open this closed circle of friendship and mutual interest, and to invite the poor, the sick, the socially excluded. This was unheard of: nobody would wish to share a meal with an unknown person. Yet this is charity.
Jesus tells his listeners that the reason they will be blessed for inviting such people is precisely because they have no way to repay them. This is to give without thought of a return. It is totally gratuitous.
To give in this way brings happiness. Jesus says it is the happiness which God will give us in the resurrection, the resurrection which comes not only at the end of history, but even now. To act in this way is already a resurrection: our way of being has opened to a greater reality; we have been reborn.
19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight. (Colossians 1: 19-22)
