Skip to main content
ArchiveCommentaryDoctrineGARBC Blog Feed

Banquets: Should We Be Inviting “the Poor, the Crippled, the Lame, the Blind”?

By April 1, 1991November 9th, 2022No Comments

Q.

Please comment on Luke 14:12–14. Why do people not do this? Even in our church suppers and banquets we never heed this command. I don‘t ever remember anyone preaching a sermon on it either.

A.
The passage reads, “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. 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.”

When I was a Bible college student dining at the home of a pastor and his family, I remember him saying how delighted he was to have us guys for dinner so that he could fulfill this verse. I’ve always remembered that. Nothing is wrong with entertaining friends who will turn around and have you over to their place. But it is even more noble to have those over who cannot repay you. All I can say is, “Try it.” We’ve been the most blessed when we have done that. I think of several examples right away, and the appreciation they have shown is worth far more than gold.

Also, I think Jesus was teaching here that a person ministering to such people truly shows that he is ministering for the Lord’s sake, not for his own gain.

This article appeared in the “Q & A” column of the Baptist Bulletin (April 1991) by Norman A. Olson. 

Leave a Reply