“But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.” Luke 14:13-14
Jesus has a persistent way of showing again and again the great gulf that is fixed between the ways of earth and the ways of Heaven. We simply do not operate with the motives and compulsions by which God operates, but we ought to, and we can!
The Pharisee-host to whom our Lord was speaking probably profited little from this lesson on heavenly etiquette, but there is an eternally valuable truth to be gleaned here. Man’s natural motivation is to perform most of his so-called charities with an eye to a return in kind on his investment – and even the budgets of churches can show the same tendency, but God’s way is just the opposite.
We should not be surprised, therefore, when we encounter a natural reluctance among men to give sacrificially for the sole purpose of sending the Gospel message to the ” … the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind” (Luke 14:13), who in the darkness of some distant pagan land hunger for a life-giving taste of the Word of God. We should not be surprised; no, but we can heed the Word of God here and now, and take fresh stock of our own lives to make sure our investments are made with an eye to heavenly values.
Let it be a forever settled conclusion that for the individual Christian or for the church that truly enters by faith into the God-given task of sending forth the Gospel to the lost world, the investment is going to be of a nature that cannot in this life be recovered. Such giving therefore lacks the fleshly appeal that can be incorporated in a “drive” for funds for a new organ, added comforts in the pews, or for the building of yet another church, and the chalking up of another statistic for our denomination.
But wait- isn’t that precisely what Jesus warns against in the text? What He is saying is that the highest possible motivation in Christian giving is the fact that ” … they cannot recompense thee … ” The Son of God speaks words here that are utterly foreign to man’s natural thinking.
But note well the promise that He utters in the same breath, ” … thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just” (Luke 14:14). You will be repaid all right- and with currency of an eternal and unchanging value!
Here in a very real sense, then is an invitation – and an opportunity- to ” .. .lay up … treasures in heaven … ” (Matthew 6:20). But all too few, we fear, will display the joyous discernment voiced by the enlightened soul of Luke 14:15, who cries out, ” … Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.”
How true! But if we would partake of that bread there and then, we are going to have to learn to let go of it gladly here and now, and send it on ahead in faith – by giving it where there is absolutely nothing in it for us, to those who” … cannot recompense … “