What Kind of Table Have We Built?

A devotional for Tuesday

“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... Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.’”
Luke 14:12-13 (NLT)

Jesus wasn’t really giving His host advice about planning a dinner party. He was challenging the way people decided who deserved access, honor, and belonging. Their tables had become places where status mattered and relationships could become transactional. Jesus envisioned something entirely different. His table reflects the character of a God who gives grace without asking what He will receive in return. That should cause us to examine the tables we build too. Are they places where people feel they have to prove themselves before they belong? Do we mostly make room for people who can offer us something? Have our preferences ever become barriers between someone else and the love of Jesus? The Kingdom table is marked by radical generosity because every person sitting there is already living on grace. We received something we could never earn. Now we get to extend it freely.

Question/Challenge:
What would need to change for the “tables” in your life to look more like the table of Jesus?