Rector's Blog

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Host or Guest?

Jesus said also to the one who had invited him, "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind."

Do you ever wonder if a host invited Jesus back for supper a second time? The gospel writers, of course, don't say. It is, I suppose, a rather irrelevant question. But from this episode it would be a surprise to me if a host ever had the nerve to do it.

Look at what Jesus does here: he is an invited guest, reclining this evening at the Sabbath meal, and he has the audacity to tell his host in front of everyone else what he thinks would be a much better dinner party: "when you give a luncheon or dinner [next time]" Jesus says, "don't invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors"—and perhaps you can imagine how Jesus, as he says these words, sweeps his hand in the air, pointing at his fellow guests who recline around him. Better yet, perhaps you can even imagine the host's face, how it pales and slides into a frown as Jesus speaks. The host has shown hospitality to Jesus, but Jesus is not returning the favor. Jesus is not being a good guest: he does not repay his host.

We love quid pro quo—literally, "something for something." It just feels right. But isn't this precisely what Jesus challenges us to consider, whether true service to others is really quid pro quo? It's a hard question to ask and consider, but I think the passage calls us to question: how much of our serving others is done with an underlying expectation, or at least a hope, that somehow we will get back what we've paid in? Here's a personal question for you to reflect on: are your "guests" in your life whom you serve able to repay you? If so, are they really guests?

Jesus today demonstrates the basis for service, and it will not make the next edition of Emily Post. (Criticizing hosts who invite us to their homes is not going to become fashionable.) He challenges his host and us to serve people who don't repay ("the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind") by becoming his challenge. Jesus as the host of our life is the guest in our life whom we cannot repay. Think about that for a moment: Jesus as the host of our life is the guest in our life whom we cannot repay.

Take into your service today this encouragement: that beyond quid pro quo, God has shown you through his Son real service: something for nothing. And on this basis you have a new orientation to serve others without thought of repayment, and in ways they cannot repay. Like Jesus, you may serve others as a true host, and even challenge them as their true guest.

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