Transforming the Way We Relate to Others

He said also to the man who had invited him, "When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbours, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. 13But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
(Luke 14:12-15)

As we’ve been considering Jesus’ teaching at this slightly dysfunctional banquet – we’ve seen that the gospel transforms our self image; it changes the way we view ourselves, so that in humility we start to consider others more and ourselves less. In this passage Jesus starts to unpack the implications that this new self-image has for the way we relate to others.

The individualism that runs through sport is plain for all to see, and the top managers have a real job in getting the big egos to gel together into a team. In this sense, verse 12 has a very contemporary ring to it; Jesus is saying that it’s common when people give a dinner to only invite the people who can be of use or of value to them – friends, rich neighbours – those who make you feel good, or those who can help you progress in life.

Now to be clear Jesus doesn’t have a downer on family or friends – far from it, but he is following on from his teaching on pride to show that if we are motivated by looking after ourselves then the inevitable consequence is that we use people – or as Jesus puts it, we only invite those who can ‘repay’ us. We probably wouldn’t be as blunt as Jesus is in saying this, but isn’t it true that when the world revolves around you then the people you mix with are only those that are useful or valuable to you or make you feel good about yourself? Shocking as it may sound this is using people.

However, Jesus then shows us that a new self-image of humility means that we stop relating to others on the basis of how useful they are to us and start relating to others on the basis of who they are and the needs they have. ‘When you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you’.

An attitude of humility totally transforms the way that we relate to others so that we stop using them and start considering their needs and how we might serve them. In this we have the absolutely supreme example given by Jesus himself, who in being God had more reason to expect the world to revolve around him than anyone else (because the world really does revolve around him!), still he considered our needs first and gave up heaven to die on a brutal instrument of torture so that we might be reconciled to God the Father through him.

How different would the team you play in be if everyone stopped using others and started serving each other? Wouldn’t the team be totally transformed? Wouldn’t it be like… well… heaven on earth? Well Jesus has given you a totally new self-image so take the initiative and change the way you relate to others – serve them, because Christ has served you.

Pete