Our text this afternoon is taken from the Gospel of Luke as we continue to make our way through the Gospel. We're in chapter 14 and beginning in verse 12 and reading through verse 14. Jesus has been just sharing a parable seated at dinner with, I think it is a Pharisee, and now He turns to speak to him. Verse 12, He said also to the man who had invited Him, When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. We were exhorted last week, as some of you remember, to humble ourselves. It's the way the text ended just before this one. We should seek, we heard, the low road for all those who would exalt themselves, Jesus reminds us, they will be humbled. And those who humble themselves will be exalted. And now Jesus turns, having said that to the man who had invited him. That is, he turns to the man who desired to have the company of Jesus at his table, in his house. And He directs His attentions in that way to someone that I think is very much like you and I. Do we not, like Him, desire to have Jesus near to us? Do we not want Him in our lives and in our everyday doings? And if we were given the chance, would we not, if we had Jesus in the flesh here, invite Him to our house to sit at our table and enter under our roof and be near us? And I think the answer is, of course, We would. And so when he turns to this man who invited Jesus to come to his table, he is in a way turning to every one of us who desire similar things to him. Jesus is turning to us and turning to us. Having exhorted us to humility, he now guides us. I believe in a practical way to its pursuit. The pursuit of humility. Jesus shows us here what it is to walk the path of humility. He gives us the first steps as it were along the way and then points us on to continue down the path. And notice that the path of humility as he opens it here is not something that you and I must search out for as some long away place or something difficult to find, no. It is right before us. We might say it's prepared beforehand that we should walk in it. It is there in the things that you and I already do. He says, when you give a dinner or a banquet, That is, when you do that which you normally do, not something new, not something alien, but instead an old thing, giving dinners, hosting banquets, old familiar things which He would have us use in a new way following Him. Jesus is saying to us, you do the old thing, Do it, but do it differently, according to a new rule. Like a father seeing his child playing with some household object, but doing it in such a way that he's using it wrongly, and taking it in his hands, and using it before the child in the right way, and then handing it back. So Jesus takes our table and our invitations to our tables, and uses them, or shows us how to use them properly, only to give it back to us. And first, notice that he tells us what we should stop doing with our tables. Continuing in verse 12, he says, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbors. It's a short list, but if we're honest with ourselves, isn't that the very list that would characterize nearly every single one of our dinner parties or banquets which we host in our house? Are they not composed of these things? Friends, brothers, relatives, and neighbors. When you host a dinner, isn't that who you usually invite to your dinners? And I think we must say, yes, typically that is. And we invite them for good reason, don't we? We invite friends because they're our friends and we like to spend time with them and to eat our food with them. We invite our brothers because they are our nearest kin. We invite our relatives because they're family. Brothers and family, well of course we invite them to our tables because that's what you're supposed to do with your family, right? And hopefully most of us do it because we actually enjoy our family and love them in some way. And then there is the neighbors. Why do you sit down with those who just happen to live nearest to you? Well, there are a lot of reasons why we do that, of course. Maybe we just want to get to know them. Maybe it's just to appear neighborly to our neighbors. There could be any number of reasons why we invite our neighbors into our homes. But no, Jesus says more than just neighbors here. Look at the text there. He says at the end of, or in the middle of verse 12, rich neighbors. He adds the word rich. And I think that he does this for a particular point. He does so to tease out our motivation for inviting neighbors into our homes. And again, if we are honest with ourselves, our invitation, they are usually driven by some kind of criteria by which we decide who we're going to invite. We don't just typically go down the street knocking on each and every door on the street and just invite whoever happens to open the door and is willing to come. Not at all we don't do that. Instead, we invite ones who have certain things that characterize them. We invite the couple just down the street because when we look at them in their yard and see the way they keep their house, we think, I kind of like those people and the way that they keep their yard. Or the neighbor over there because she seems friendly and I think that her and I could be friends. Or the other family because they have kids our same age as our kids. Or perhaps it's that other family that are the same age as us and so we have that in common. or the household that we have heard holds her who is in finance, or he who is a lawyer, or a politician, or a retired athlete that we find interesting, or maybe it's a teacher like me, or whatever it may be. And all of these reasons are perfectly innocent. There is nothing inherently sinful in such desires, although of course there could be, but I don't think that's the point at all. The point is that we invite others because they have or are something that you and I find desirable. They are rich in a way that compels us to send the invite, and so what do we do? We invite them. And Jesus tells us plainly what we will receive when we do these things. He says, we'll receive invites in return. And isn't that your experience? You invite someone who's friendly and they friendly, in a friendly way, return the invitation. We are, as Jesus says, repaid. We get to go into their house and see what they have inside and sit at their table and eat their food and enjoy their fellowship. We enter into a relationship that is good, but that has its limitations. It is life and good that has this present time as its horizon and no further. It is a reciprocal blessedness that is blessed, but that dies at the grave. that ends with this life, a good, yes, but not the greater eternal good which Jesus would hold out to us by using our tables in the way that he describes. And the way that he describes it, he gives us a path to humility. A humility that unites us to him and so therefore gives communion with him by going a different way than we would normally go. A way that he maps out before us. And that is why he tells the man who invited him and telling him he tells us to stop. Do not, he says, invite in this old way. And that doesn't mean unequivocally that you may never be allowed to invite your family to your home or your friends to your home or your neighbors to your home. Of course you can. But as you do those things, do this as well or as most important above those other things, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid and that's all you ever have or know from your table. That is, he would have us stop doing the old thing in the old way, and in its place, he calls us to something new and different. Verse 13, but, he says, when you give a feast, notice again, he's assuming that you're gonna do it, this is your normal way, when you sit down to eat with others, invite, he says, the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, poor, crippled, lame, and blind. Now that is a different set of invites than the original one that we read a moment ago. And I wonder which one of us has ever had a dinner party where our table is filled with such people at the table. Such words thrust us, do they not, into the words of the Sermon on the Mount and the ethic, that high, heavenly ethic that Jesus sets before us. It puts us into the rarefied air of loving our enemies. of turning our other cheek, of going the second mile, of giving the cloak off our back to him who needs it, setting a table for the poor and the lame and the blind. And if you picture that at your table, it may even seem a bit cartoonish to have blind, crippled, lame people and poor sitting at our tables. You might wonder, what would such a table actually look like? Because none of us, I don't think, have ever filled our tables in such a way. We have an example, I think, thankfully. God, the Holy Spirit, is kind to us and He gives us an example in the scriptures themselves. In 2 Samuel 4, verse 4, we're introduced to a man. A particular man, a son of Jonathan, and who is himself a son of Saul, the king, before David. And if you remember this story, he was dropped by his nurse when he was a baby. So the nurse is fleeing from some disaster that's fallen upon the house of Saul. And as she flees, she's carrying this boy, and it drops him. And both of his feet are lamed for the rest of his life because of it. And we're told his name. His name is Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth. And when David descends the throne, he seeks out this same Mephibosheth and gives him, the lame one, dropped at birth, a seat at his table. In fact, we read in 2 Samuel 9, verse 13, that he, Mephibosheth, ate always at the king's table. And then the text adds that he was lame in both feet. Clearly the Holy Spirit is intent on us knowing that Mephibosheth was lame and that Mephibosheth ate as a lame man at David's table. But even more importantly, and I think especially for us as we're looking at this text, he tells us, the Holy Spirit tells us why David has this man at our table. And this is important for us who hear the call to invite such people to our table, because when Jesus tells us to invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind, he adds this little detail right afterwards. He adds something that we might describe as a promise. He says, and you will be blessed. And so hearing this, I think we could easily be moved, you and I, to go search out the lame and the blind and the poor and the crippled and to gather them around our table. Why? So that we might have this blessing, whatever it is, that's there. We may fill our table with such people and we may do it for the blessing. But to do it in that way and for that reason would be to miss the point entirely that Jesus is getting at here. It would still be to walk in that old way as we once invited our friends and our neighbors. It has this world and blessings in it as its end. And this is where David's story, I think, is most helpful to us. It's instructive. David doesn't invite Mephibosheth to his table because he was lame, nor does he do so because he's going to receive some kind of blessing that's promised to him, although both those things are probably true. No, it says, he invited Mephibosheth to the table. By the way, it's hard to say Mephibosheth this many times in a sermon, just in case you were wondering. Mephibosheth to the table because he was Jonathan's son. Why? Because he's Jonathan's son. The text reads that he showed him, it says, kindness. It's the word chesed, or covenant faithfulness. He showed him covenant faithfulness, steadfast love, for, it says, Jonathan's sake. He had the lame man sit at his table for the sake of another, namely Jonathan, for his sake. Jonathan. And you remember his relationship to David, don't you? Jonathan, he who was faithful to David when no one else was faithful to David. Jonathan who loved him more than he loved his own father and would have easily, quickly given his seat at his father's table to David. Who loved him, we read, as his own soul. Jonathan who stuck closer to him than a brother. Jonathan with whom David was joined by covenant. The two made a covenant together. It was not about Mephibosheth's physical or economic state, but for Jonathan's sake. As David himself says, I will show kindness, steadfast love, and faithfulness to you, Mephibosheth, for the sake of your father, Jonathan, and you shall eat at my table always. It was on account of a prior commitment, you see. Listen to it. It's on account of a prior commitment to someone else that David did what he did. And so it is, and it must be with us. Why do we invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind? Well, it's not for a blessing. Not at all. But because of a prior commitment to someone else. To Jesus Christ, our Lord. We show kindness to them because He has first shown kindness to us. Not because we were lovable. Not because we were invitable. But because He loves us freely. We do it for Jesus' sake. That's why. It's the very essence of every single thing that we do that we would call good works. They're not done necessarily because they are good in themselves, although they are good, they are done because we love and wish to walk in the steps of Jesus out of commitment and covenant faithfulness and love for Him. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us and gave us what you and I could never repay, eternal life, forgiveness of sins, and a seat at his table. As it is with us, so shall it be with our dinner guests. We invite them, Jesus says, who cannot repay us. They cannot. And I believe it would be literally impossible for them because the blessing that is ours in the deed is more than physical food or a physical place at a table. It is more than this world good things. We experience, when we invite the poor and the crippled and the lame and the blind to our table, we experience fellowship and communion with Christ in such a deed. As he says, we will be, that is presently in the doing of it, if we go out and we do these things, we will be blessed. to sit at table with such. Well, how will we do this? Let me tell you. If you invite something like the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind to your table, whom have no reason to be at your table other than Jesus, as you do so, you will be reminded that you yourself are also poor, and crippled, and blind, and lame. You will be reminded of that and so to do so will do something to you. It will serve to humble you. Having them at your table will humble you and more. As you do it, it will give your hands and feet opportunity to serve them like Christ himself with his hands and feet served you. It will provide you with an opportunity to be where He was in this world as He was in this world. It will, in that sense, exalt you. In other words, you will participate in the covenant that God made with us in Christ when we ourselves were poor and crippled and lame and blind. And how can a mere human and a weak one at that pay us back for that? impossible. They can't do that. How can they give to us that what such communion with Christ in the deed promises us? As surely as Mephibosheth could not give Jonathan back to David, so it is sure that the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind cannot give back to you and I Jesus and all of his glorious humanity. It's impossible. Yes, we may be blessed with a sense of nearness in the doing of the good deed, with a sense of assurance that we are in some way united to him as we work the work, Our faith in His covenant promises may be renewed through the ministry of the Spirit as we serve the poor and lay food before those who could never feed us. But all this only serves to remind us of Christ and nurture in us a sense that He is not here and that we long for Him to be here in His fullness. No, they can't repay such things, such deeds, even if they had a thousand tables filled with the richest of foods. No, the only repayment for us in our participation with Christ is what he promises to us right here in this text. He says, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. Resurrection is coming. A day when both the just and the unjust will stand before the judgment seat of God. And in that day, Jesus says, He will stand in the glory of His Father as a shepherd, separating the sheep from the goats. To those on His right hand, the sheep, you all know the parable, Matthew 25, 33, He'll say, Come. Come, you who are blessed by My Father, and inherit a kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed Me. I was thirsty, and you set drink out before Me. I was a stranger and you invited Me. You welcomed Me in. I was naked and you clothed Me. I was sick and you visited Me. I was in prison and you came to Me. Why do we show kindness to such that are outside the bounds of our natural affections? Is it for a blessing? Is it to appear kind to men, to ourselves, or are we kind because Jesus Christ was first kind to us? Are we generous in our invitations because He Himself was generous to invite us? I think if we have known Him and His generosity, we will most certainly be like Him. Both now at our tables, and then later in that coming day at His. For again He says, blessed are those servants whom the Master finds awake, that is, living for Him, even at our tables, in our invitations. For when He comes, truly I say to you, He will dress Himself for service and have them recline at table, and He will come and serve them. He will, according to promise, repay them. Them meaning the just. the humbled and exalted ones, those at the right hand of the shepherd called the sheep, those who are in fellowship with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and David, the king, who sat Mephibosheth at his table, and whomsoever will, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, for Jesus' sake, to their own tables. Amen. Let me pray. Father in heaven, we are thankful to you for this reminder, O Lord, of our call to seek out the ones that are like unto us in our spiritual destitution, Lord, that have nothing and lack all and could do nothing apart from your great mercy toward us. Father, we pray that you would give us eyes to see such people in our own midst, to love them with your love and to reach out to them as you first reached out to us. And so that we might fulfill the law of Christ and walk in his way and know fellowship with him. And on that last day, know the repayment that you give to all those who are called your own, the just. and that you will sit with them and serve them at your table. Lord, we pray that these things would be ours in abundance. In Jesus' name, amen.