Maybe I’m presuming too much, but it’s depressing to think that many Christians today could hardly think of attending let alone hosting the type of party to which Jesus exhorts us. Can you imagine hosting a party such as the following? For starters, all the guests would need transportation. While simple directions might help the blind, (if printed in Braille) they would be useless to the crippled. Without modern wheelchairs, they would need to be carried. It would be great to have everyone carpool with the poor—for they have only working eyes and legs to drive.
If the poor are too destitute to own a mule, it’s far less likely they would own a working car. So, to have a party such as this, you might need to do a lot driving, carrying and leading—and that’s just getting the guests to your house. On a high note, no one would arrive fashionably late. If they did, they would find themselves hungry because the visitors would consume a large amount of food in a short amount of time. The smell of home cooking wouldn’t last long enough. The food would be ingested as soon as it came out of the oven.
Social pleasantries of eating a small appetizer while sipping on a glass of wine would be dismissed with joyful abandon. Lest a riot break out, this would be the type of party Jesus would have to multiply food and wine. Amazing as it would be, it’s highly probable that even the 12 extra baskets of leftovers would be picked clean.
You’d be too busy to cook extra food. The maimed might need to be fed by hand. This would be hard to do while trying to keep everyone’s cups filled—which, by the way, might need to be refilled more than you would think. The blind wouldn’t know they accidentally kicked over someone’s mug on your new rug. Without much furniture, the crippled would be lying around your house inadvertently helping to absorb each spill. While you might find this to be a sovereign blessing in disguise, it poses a big problem for them as they are trampled in a stampede of blind people who are up for a second helping. A blind person’s sense of smell is dramatically acute, compensating for lack of sight. Yet, the blind’s superior sense of smell doesn’t protect against being tripped by the extended legs of the maimed and poor. Hey, when it comes to free food, all’s fair. Who said these people were nice?
By the time everyone had his or her fill of food and drink, you would need to provide transportation back to where they came from. In the late hours of the night, after everyone is back to his or her respective place, you’ll return home to find your house in utter disarray. The mess is hard to describe, but it looks as if you just a fete for the city’s poor, paralyzed, blind and maimed. On top of this, some of your possessions might be missing.
All this work, time, energy and money spent just so you could obey Jesus’ plans for having a party…As you begin to fall asleep, the sun starts to rise. You might begin to reflect about God: How He went out and brought you into His house to feed you heavenly bread; how He gave you living water and clothed you with love. Then in the very moment before you dose off, you not only realize you were once poor, lame and blind but that you still require the same amount of God’s grace.
“But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind” (
