Today’s reading is Luke 14.
This passage today has me asking myself the convicting question: who are the good deeds of my faith for? Obviously when I am moved to be charitable & gracious & help those in need as Christ commands, I am moved by the Lord: but is my intention purely to glorify & magnify Him? Or deep within my heart, am I being a good Christian out of self-gratification? Or only in ways that could benefit me or reflect nicely on me? Or even done solely to please and gratify other people? In answer of these tough questions, I think of Psalm 75: “For not from the east or from the west and not from the wilderness comes lifting up, but it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another.” Jesus’s words in these parables make me look deep inside, examine my own actions, and ask very difficult questions about what drives me, and grow more exuberant to help those in need and to grow as both man and believer.
These days, we’re stuck with a modern culture of both over- and under-investment. We all are bombarded with so many obligations and distractions it can be difficult to find the time to go out of our way to give the proper time to important matters; while on the flip-side, this makes it incredibly easy to not fully commit, instead using our plethora of options to conveniently be able to back out of things we don’t feel strongly enough about partaking in or inconvenienced by. From solely personal experience, this can happen in all sorts of people from all walks of life, but gets more common as you look at younger and younger people, who are most accustomed to this modern life of detachment. No high horse here though – it’s definitely something I’ve been guilty of, which is why this passage hits me hard. But like in many ways, what we perceive as solely modern issues have been struggled with in various ways for much longer than expected. Christ’s parable on the Great Banquet in v12-14 demonstrates this all too well – how this lack of commitment and search for ways out have been spiritual struggles since biblical times. We have been called to partake in a great celebration at God’s side, and of course we all want to partake. But have we all considered the cost of entry?
When we are loving and generous as Christians, it can’t always be convenient, or proper, or self-satisfying. It can be easy to internally rationalize away our need to act in love in difficult times, or in ways that could not possibly benefit ourself, or in ways that may just be irrational and incomprehensible from a merely earthly perspective. But Jesus very clearly explains what awaits those who won’t pay the cost to accept the reward of the Kingdom of Heaven: “For I tell you, ‘None of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’” Instead, in these parables, Christ encourages us to put loving those in need & growing the Kingdom of Heaven above our own selfish pursuits, or earthly gain, and even our loved ones. Not that enriching things such as self-growth, hard work, and family are at all evil or detestable – but that we must not put them before God, as if to hate them in comparison.
Especially important to me is the Parable of the Wedding Feast in v.7-11. Jesus calls us to humble ourselves so that we may be exalted when the time of the Feast arrives. Who better to command this than Jesus! Phillipians 2:5-8 tells us this: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Our Lord and Savior acts as the ultimate example of humble love, giving everything He had to bring others to God and display His love. This selfless display embodies humility, love, and honor. This is the important essence of accepting lower and lesser positions of honor and celebration in various regards of life: not so we can grovel or gain pity at our own lot in life, but in how we could share in what we’ve been blessed with alongside those whom we’ve been humbled enough to serve as Christ might.
It warms my heart to see frequent examples of Christians embodying true Gospel love. Through giving above & beyond, spending their time feeding & caring after the poor, traveling far across the globe to lend a hand and the good news of Jesus to those with far less than us, even showing love & forgiveness to others expecting no reward or reciprocation. I thank the Lord for how he moves His followers to humble themselves to exalt Him, and pray He would continue to do so through the actions of each of us. I pray that I could lower myself to aid those who need it more so every day, in the hopes that His name would be raised & praised in the process. And I pray the same for all of us; that we may lower our own needs to put His call & His invitation above any other priority.