Feeding the hungry

 This week's verses are Luke 14:12-14:

 He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you host a dinner or a banquet, don’t invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors so you can be invited by them in return and get repaid. But when you host an elaborate meal, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Then you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

 These verses are a great lesson on true charity. The rich people Jesus was confronting were using their wealth to host dinners for each other instead of for the people who are actually hungry. When we do acts of charity, like inviting people over for dinner, our motivations can vary widely without us realizing it.

The people Jesus was confronting were hosting dinners so that others would see them as good people and invite them to dinners to return the favor. Nobody on the guest list actually needed free food. They just wanted to be known as the sort of people who get invited to dinners held by the sort of people who invite people to dinner. Their motivations were selfish and shallow.

Compare that to what Jesus suggests they do: Jesus suggests they invite people who actually need free food: people who have nobody to support them, whose needs are not covered by public aid, and who are not the sort of people who get invited to dinners held by the sort of people who host dinners. The motivation here is simply to feed the hungry.

When we are generous, we are usually generous with people who don't need it. We do nice things in order to be nice, so that we will be seen as nice, and perhaps also so that we will think of ourselves as nice people. We're generous with our friends, or maybe to get a tax deduction. We're not generous in the way that Jesus is generous.

When we have selfish and shallow motivations, we give in order to receive. We pick charities we can name-drop to impress girls at parties. We give to the police benevolent association so we can have a magic window talisman to ward off speeding tickets. We buy lunch for our colleagues because we hope they'll pick it up next time.

When we have Christlike motivations, we give out of pure love. We feed the hungry, not because they deserve it or because it's the right thing to do, but simply because they are hungry.  We meet their need the way God meets ours.

Some of us aren't generous people at all. But for those of us who are, take a look at why you give what you give. Is it for the same reasons that Jesus would give? Or are you more like the people he scolded? Let your giving be motivated by love, and you will be rewarded by God's love in the resurrection.