Focus 2020 – The Great Commission: Perspectives from LeadersSample

Who Is at Your Table? 

Bible passage: 

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 neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” (Luke 14:12–14) 

Devotional: 

One Sabbath, Jesus was invited to a fancy dinner with a lot of important people. But as he observed the gathering, he noticed that there are some striking problems at the dinner. On his way into the house of the wealthy Pharisee, Jesus is stopped by a man who has a tremendous swelling. We don’t know what caused it, but we do know a lot about the climate in that day—and today—toward people who are “different.” They are not welcome at the table. Jesus sees the Pharisees watching him keenly. He heals the man, and then asks the religious men whether they would pull their son out of a well if he fell in on the Sabbath. Or, forget the son, what if your ox fell in? They can’t answer, so the dinner begins. 

But Jesus isn’t satisfied with this lack of response. He was trying to make a point. The dinner is far too homogenous for Jesus’ taste, filled with wealthy, self-important men. So, he proposes several thinly-veiled parables. These were not the kind of parables that left you pondering mysterious theological truths. They were self-explanatory and hard-hitting. 

Or are they? 

What typically happens when we read Luke 14 is that we see the references to the poor, crippled, lame, and blind, and we spiritualize these examples: poor in spirit, spiritually blind, etc. But I believe these are literal references, not figurative.  

If you look around the “table” in the Body of Christ globally, you will notice a distinctive lack of people with disabilities. Oh, certainly most churches will have one or two people affected by disability, often a child. But 15 percent of the world’s population has a disability. If we are making disciples of ALL nations and peoples, shouldn’t the Church, the Body of Christ around the world, have a representative population? In fact, in light of Jesus’ mandate in Luke 14, perhaps there should be a disproportionate number of people with disabilities filling our sanctuaries—whether they are gilded with stained glass windows or open-air benches with a thatch roof. 

Jesus was constantly seeking out people with disabilities. In fact, when John sent his disciples to verify Jesus’ identity in his season of painful doubt, Jesus identified himself with disabled people: “Go and tell John what you see and hear; the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised, and the poor hear the Good News.” (Luke 7:22–23). In other words, “if you want to know who I am, look at people with disabilities and the transformation in their lives!”  

Can we say the same? Are our church plants filled with the blind and the lame? Are our development programs reaching lepers and the deaf? Is the Good News known by those who are being hidden and ostracized in the communities where we work? Let’s evaluate our tables and follow Jesus’ mandate for inclusive invitation to it.  

Quote: For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” (Luke 14:14) 

Question: Do you have compassion and concern for people with disabilities as you minister? 

Kim Kargbo 

President & Founder, Accessible Hope International