I had the privilege of teaching Luke 14 a few weeks ago and I can’t get the passage out of my head. The passage starts with a man who has a disease and he gets invited to a party with Jesus and the Pharisees. The Pharisees are bringing him in as a prop in order to set up Jesus to heal on the Sabbath (which they don’t like). Jesus is happy to heal the guy and basically says, “wouldn’t you do the same?”(Knowing their answer is actually no.)

What stuck out to me more than anything is how the whole story of this dinner ends Basically, Jesus tells the people at the party that heaven is going to be full of people who are lame, broken, and sick; not the perfect people like the ones sitting with him at dinner. What strikes me is that we are called to be the ones who are “poor in spirit,” we are called to be the broken ones.

Until we understand that we are the broken and lame, we will never have a pure passion to help the poor, not just the poor financially but also the poor spiritually. God has a great passion for all of us to experience the fullness of life and He will do everything He can to help as many people as He can experience this abundant life. Our calling is to have the same passion as God and to be constantly reaching out to people and helping them experience God.

The final thing that strikes me about Luke 14 is that the one person who should not have been at the party was the one who actually got to experience a new life. The sick man, the man who was brought as a prop, is the only person at the party who leaves having been restored to new life. This is a great picture for us to understand. When we realize we should not be there (on our own accord) and despite that God restores us and gives us a new life, we will realize out of deep satisfaction that God want us all to help the poor of all kinds.

What if the Church became a place that was concerned for the poor? What if we were a place that was passionate about helping the needy, the sick, and the lame? What would happen if the church was a safe haven for people to have a life changing experience with God? What if the Church would decide to actually make a difference in the many social issues of the day? I wonder if then the Church would have the same reputation as Jesus.