Luke 14:13

Luke 14:13, in plain English

Instead, Jesus says, invite the people who could never repay you — the poor, the disabled, those on the margins. That's what real love looks like.

Why it's here

These are the people society overlooked and excluded from social gatherings. Jesus puts them at the center of His vision for hospitality.

Who's speaking

Jesus continues speaking to the host with a guest list that would have shocked everyone at the table.

Where it sits in the story

Jesus reimagines the dinner party: instead of VIPs and social climbers, fill the table with people who have nowhere else to go.

The scholarly reading

Jesus lists four categories of socially marginalized people — the poor (ptōchous), crippled (anapeirous), lame (chōlous), and blind (typhlous) — as the proper recipients of genuine hospitality.

Language and setting

These four groups appear again in the Great Banquet parable (v.21), creating a literary link between this ethical instruction and the parabolic narrative that follows.

Voice

Jesus continues instructing the host, prescribing a radically inclusive guest list that inverts social conventions.

Significance

Jesus names the people no one would invite to a formal dinner — the poor, disabled, and outcast — and says these are exactly who should fill the seats.

11For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

12Then Jesus said to the man who had invited Him, “When you host a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or brothers or relatives or rich neighbors. Otherwise, they may invite you in return, and you will be repaid.

13But when you host a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind,

14and you will be blessed. Since they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

15When one of those reclining with Him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is everyone who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”

Read all of Luke 14 — The invited guests make excuses, so the host sends servants into the streets and alleys. God's table will be full — just not with who you'd expect.