Act In Love

ACT IN LOVE

a prayer to open

Open my eyes and help me to see you.

Open my heart and help me to know you.

Jesus, my Lord and my God.

One Sabbath day Jesus went to eat dinner in the home of a leader of the Pharisees. . . . There was a man there whose arms and legs were swollen. Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in religious law, “Is it permitted in the law to heal people on the Sabbath day, or not?” When they refused to answer, Jesus touched the sick man and healed him and sent him away. Then he turned to them and said, “Which of you doesn’t work on the Sabbath? If your son or your cow falls into a pit, don’t you rush to get him out?” Again they could not answer.

When Jesus noticed that all who had come to the dinner were trying to sit in the seats of honor . . . he gave them this advice: “When you are invited to a wedding feast, don’t sit in the seat of honor. What if someone who is more distinguished than you has also been invited? The host will come and say, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then you will be embarrassed, and you will have to take whatever seat is left at the foot of the table!

“Instead, take the lowest place at the foot of the table. Then when your host sees you, he will come and say, ‘Friend, we have a better place for you!’ Then you will be honored in front of all the other guests. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Then he turned to his host. “When you put on a luncheon or a banquet,” he said, “don’t invite your friends, brothers, relatives, and rich neighbors. For they will invite you back, and that will be your only reward. Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Then at the resurrection of the righteous, God will reward you for inviting those who could not repay you.”

In our culture, we have been shaped to desire the best seats, the most comfortable spots, and the places and spaces saved for the honorable. We’d rather take selfies with famous people than with the forgotten, we’d rather be at a table near the powerful than in a soup kitchen with the homeless, and we’d rather be sitting with the respected than standing next to the outcasts. But Jesus shows us a different way. He calls us to the unimportant, the disrespected, the end of the line, and the middle seat. He calls us out of ourselves and into the lives of others.

• Look at each of the three scenarios in this passage. What is the common theme?
• As you consider Jesus’ teachings in this passage—to love when it is inconvenient, put others before yourself, reach out to the outcasts—which one is hardest for you to follow and why?
• What does today’s passage reveal to you about Jesus?

Father, forgive me. I am so much more likely to act in love when it is convenient and suits my own agenda. I am forever seeking the place of honor and wanting to be exalted, whether overtly or in subtle ways. I spend more time trying to prove my worth than pointing people to you. Dispel my desire to be honored and approved of by others. Mold and change my heart so that, for your sake, I see others first, act on their behalf at every opportunity, and reach out to the lonely and forgotten. Amen.