How should this passage be applied?

[angell1]

Those who make themselves great will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be made great." Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbours—for they will invite you back, and in this way you will be paid for what you did. When you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind; and you will be blessed, because they are not able to pay you back. God will repay you on the day the good people rise from death.”

as a person with blindness, i’mnot really sure how to take this. most blind people or “crippled” people we know these days have jobs and function like everyone in society.

was Jesus just talking about his time when it was harder for them to work?

i also see this kind of thing in my every day life. people never want to let me help with things or pay for anything because they feel bad to let a blind person do it or take my money. as if somehow i have nothing to give. it’s kind of frustrating sometimes when i want to live the gospel too and people treat you like you have to alwys be the receiver of their favors. i’m not trying to sound ungrateful because i do appreciate other peoples’ help but i also want to give as well. i hope this makes sense.

 

[FAB]

remember the at Christ was a man of his time. when these words were spoken, these people were not helped and had little chance in the society.

The passage is a warning that we are not to to good and expecting repayment or award. That we are to do works first not expecting any thing in return and second, for those who cannot give us in return. .

You are not in this passage the person who is cripple, you are the person giving the dinner.

Deacon Frank

 

[ClearWater]

I think Christ meant at that time, not to invite people who were in a position to repay him. Now, blind people have computers and all the rest. It’s a little different. I think we are to try to listen to the essence, the spirit of what he meant with those words.

I would interpret Christ’s words in today’s context to mean, “…anyone who was not in a position to repay the favor”.

As to the blind and disabled, yes, sometimes it’s a bit easy to go overboard. We want so badly to help others that we sometimes help people who either don’t want, or don’t need it. It’s basically, in part, due to our own ignorance. We might not have had a lot of blind or disabled friends and don’t know how to proceed. Most are probably well intentioned but maybe misguided.

 

[Avila123]

I am no expert so I can only guess. It would have been harder for some people to support themselves as society then, did not have the technology we have today. Your Post has made me think again on those words as I thought (until now) of it in the context of materially poor and physically blind or crippled. But I do know people who are spiritually poor, crippled and/or blind, and some take but are unable to give. When I invite my friends for a meal, only one may issue an invite for a meal at her house (but it is rare), the other four will not. Two do not cook and the other two do not have the gift of hospitality. Funnily enough, I’m the only one who likes cooking (even my sister in laws don’t).

This is just the thoughts that have sprung to mind from reading your post. Please do not take this as an interpretation of Scripture as I am not qualified to do that.