The Dinner Party for the Poor Story.

Luke 14.12-15.

Because Jesus tells his Dinner Party Story right after this story, in which the host of the story does this, lots of Christians tend to not preach specifically on the Dinner Party for the Poor Story. They lump it together with the Humble Guest Story, call them collectively the Parable fo the Guests, and again skip its points unless they’re gonna dive right into the Dinner Party Story. Or they’ll use it as a preamble for the Dinner Party Story—“First Jesus tells us we oughta invite people who can’t repay us, then here’s a story where a guy does exactly that.”

Well today I’m only writing about the Dinner Party for the Poor Story. Here’s the passage.

Luke 14.12-15 KWL

12Jesus also tells the one who invited him,

“When you¹ host a brunch or dinner,

don’t invite your¹ friends.

Nor your¹ siblings, nor your relatives,

nor your wealthy neighbors.

Otherwise they might also invite you,¹

and that becomes your¹ repayment.

13Instead, when you¹ host a dinner party,

invite the poor, disabled, impaired, and blind.

14You’ll¹ be awesome,

because they have no way to repay you.¹

For you’ll¹ be repaid

in the resurrection of the just.”

15Someone reclining at dinner with Jesus,

hearing this, tells him, “How awesome

for whoever will eat bread in God’s kingdom!”

This gets called a parable because it’s inbetween two parables. It’s not straight-up called a parable like the Humble Guest Story, Lk 14.7 but it’s considered one… and unfortunately because parables are analogies which describe God’s kingdom, we get plenty of Christians who never do anything like this. Never invite the poor, needy, and disabled to their celebrations. NEVER.

Never even think to. Because this is a parable; it’s not advice or instruction from Jesus; it’s only describing God’s kingdom, to which everyone is invited. It doesn’t mean we have to demonstrate this. No no no; we can continue hosting soirées in which we only ever invite friends, relatives, and the rich and popular. Relax; we can keep doing as the world does, and keep conforming to it, not God’s kingdom.

Y’know, someone who’s actually striving to follow Jesus is also gonna follow the heroes of his parables. Not because we’re taking the parables literally; we should know better than that. But we should also recognize that the good Samaritan is a role model; the generous vineyard owner is a role model; the obedient son is a role model; even the shrewd butler is a role model. If God’s kingdom is like these guys, be like these guys.

Again, not a new idea.

Whenever I point out how one of Jesus’s teachings has a parallel in the Old Testament, I tend to get pushback from people who prefer to believe Jesus’s teachings were new. And that it antagonized the Pharisees in his audience, who’d never, ever heard anything like this in their traditions and their bible. But they couldn’t deny the truth of anything Jesus said, because it sounded just so very godly; Jesus was just dripping with divine charisma.

It’s rubbish. Popular rubbish, based on dispensationalism, the belief Jesus ushered in a new era which did away with the old era. It ignores the fact Jesus is the LORD who handed down the Law of Moses, and explicitly stated he did not come to do away with it. In fact we gotta become better than Pharisees—and actually follow it instead of looking for loopholes like they did.

And every other valid teaching in the OT stems from what God’s trying to do with his Law. He wants a fair and just society, which helps the needy, not just the rich. He wants empathy for the needy instead of harsh social Darwinism, which tells them, “If only you pulled yourself up by your own bootstraps; if only you behaved like worthy people,” instead of recognizing their inherent worth as God’s creations. That’s why Proverbs has lines like this one—

Proverbs 19.12 GNT

When you give to the poor, it is like lending to the LORD, and the LORD will pay you back.

—which is the very same mindset we see in Jesus’s teaching right here. Don’t invite dinner party guests who can pay you back. Invite those who can’t pay you back, and the LORD will pay you back.

It does not diminish Jesus to say he’s saying the same things as the Old Testament! It only diminishes dispensationalism, which is a false teaching anyway. If Jesus is the God of the Old Testament, and he is, it’d be more bothersome if he wasn’t consistent with the OT. It’d imply the OT wasn’t old revelation, or out-of-date revelation, but bad revelation—that the folks in Old Testament times weren’t even following the correct god. Because what kind of weak, impotent, stupid god decides, “Aw jeez, this salvation-by-merit setup I’ve created isn’t working; guess I’ll try grace”? Shouldn’t he know humans well enough to realize we’re too depraved for any such arrangement? And if, as many dispensationalists claim, he was fully aware of this already; he only set up that dispensation so he could show us we were too messed up for it, and behind the scenes he was actually saving people by grace… well that’d mean God was deceiving people by requiring good works of them. That’d make him a dirty liar—and that’s blasphemy.

Enough ranting about dispensationalism. God’s always saved people by his grace, same as he did Abraham. Jesus is this very same God, who has always been gracious to the poor and needy; who expects his followers to also be gracious to the poor and needy. Pharisees were fully aware of this, and when Jesus said such things, that’s how they knew Jesus was right, and that he was sent by God. That’s why one of them, in verse 15, responded so positively to Jesus’s teaching: Yes, this is how God’s kingdom works! Isn’t it amazing?

So why’d Pharisee leadership ultimately oppose Jesus? Because they didn’t wanna be gracious to the poor and needy. They loved their money Lk 16.14 more than their neighbors. They sought loopholes which let ’em not spend their money on their neighbors. Jesus’s emphasis on the actual Law, on what the LORD legitimately means by it, exposed their hypocrisy and embarrassed them so much they hated the prophet rather than their own corruption and sin. Hey, since they’re flouting the Law anyway, why not throw in a murder?

Christians today who never help the poor and needy are in the same boat as these Pharisees. Their loophole is they figure, “Oh this is just a parable,” and since it’s fiction, their charity can also be fiction. They can bunch themselves together with like-minded uncharitable Christians, and turn their churches into little fortresses against empathy. So… will they be included in the resurrection of the just?

When the just are resurrected.

When Jesus returns to take over the world, he’s raising us Christians from the dead to be part of it. Revelation calls this the first resurrection. Rv 20.4-6 There’s gonna be a second resurrection, where everyone else get raised; that’s not the resurrection Jesus is speaking of here. He calls it τῇ ἀναστάσει τῶν δικαίων/ti anastásei ton dikéon, “the resurrection of the just,” i.e. those who practice justice. Those who want our society to do right by everyone. Those who fight injustice, fight those who wanna seize power, exploit the weak, and enrich themselves with no thought about any good they might do with so much influence and money.

Some Pharisees believed in two resurrections—one of the just, and one of the unjust—but they figured these’d happen at the same time, ’cause God was raising everyone so he could judge them, lambs ’n kids style. Jesus neither confirms nor denies that idea here. We only know from other scriptures these resurrections will happen at different times. Regardless, you know Pharisees presumed they’d be part of the resurrection of the just.

And this, Jesus says, is when God would pay them back for doing for the needy. No, not because resurrection itself is the payback. Lousy, irreligious, ungracious Christians are getting resurrected too you know. Somebody’s gonna be the lowest in God’s kingdom; it’ll be one of them.

Now, notice Jesus refers to the resurrection of the just—and remember, the unjust have also thrown plenty of dinner parties. And some of their parties did actually include the poor and needy. I’ve been to a few of them as a reporter. These are parties thrown by charities for wealthy donors; often thrown by one of those wealthy donors who wants to be seen supporting the charity. They invite some of the poor and needy whom they’ll be helping; sometimes to get their testimonies, sometimes because they figure hey, wouldn’t it look good to include them? Thing is, these people, even though they visibly support charities, are not just; they simultaneously wanna seize power, exploit the weak, and enrich themselves. But putting their name on a hospital makes ’em look amazing. It’s pure public relations. And everybody knows it… and that is their repayment. Unless they repent, they’re gonna be in the second resurrection.

So no, merely giving alms doesn’t get you saved. But that’s hardly an excuse for not giving alms. Christians should be the most charitable people ever. Some of us are! But too many aren’t, and are hoping to do the bare minimum and go to New Jerusalem regardless. It’s a risky game they’re playing—not following Jesus, but hoping he thinks they are. It’s not always gonna pay off.