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January 24

Do you try to treat others with complete fairness, or do you find yourself treating people according to who they are? From time to time, all of us, as much as we hate to admit it, treat people according to who they are. And we likely feel fully justified in doing so. We prefer some folk to others, and the ones we prefer, we usually favor. If we decide to have guests over for dinner, we certainly favor the ones we like and would likely invite them to come. Perhaps we favor some people in life because they are wealthy, others because they are famous, still others because they are successful, or even because they are super intelligent; maybe they are people who could help us out along the way.

Jesus went to eat one Sabbath at the home of a prominent Pharisee, and as He nearly always did, He drew a number of lessons from the occasion. One lesson had to do with showing favors to important people. Jesus said to his host:

When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous (Luke 14:12–14).

I don’t think that Jesus is using this principle for every occasion, saying that you can’t have your friends, relatives, and neighbors for lunch. He is stressing, I believe, that the poor and the disadvantaged should not be left out of your planning. “God does not show favoritism,” Paul writes in his letter to the Romans. We would be wise to follow the example of our Lord in this area.