The worldview that Jesus offers in this week’s Gospel is not one that we live – if we are honest with ourselves. Yet, if we are to be Christ-followers, we are invited to conversion – to try to live more closely to the way of Jesus.
In our capitalistic worldview we exchange things – normally money – for goods. If you want something and you pay for it; you give to me, and I owe you. It is a kind of reward and punishment worldview, a transactional way of living.
In the Gospel Jesus says that we should reject such a transactional way of
living. He tells his listeners that they should not invite those who can repay by inviting those who will invite them back to a banquet. He says, clearly, invite those who cannot repay you. Those that you would never ever mix with socially.
The problem with a transactional way of living is that we use that framework for the way that we relate to others and to God.
We become entitled – “you owe me” or “be generous because it will help me later on when they are generous back”. It is centered on the self, on me, on I.
We do the same with God: “God if you help me to do X or Y then I promise you I will do W or Z”.
There is an immaturity in this way of relating but, more than that, is foreign to the Christian economy. If we look at our lives through the lens of Jesus, the lens of the Scriptures, we soon see that we are way off the mark.
We don’t like the way Jesus advocates; we feel that we have worked hard for our social positions and have earned our
keep or our rights. It is ultimately not about what we think we have earned or what we judge is owed to us.
Jesus proposes a different way: that we see things not as our right or even what we have earned but ultimately that we see all as gifts from God. That is what it means to live in the Kingdom of God – instead of the kingdom of this world.
To live in God’s Kingdom, we cannot be about looking for reward, counting what is owed to us or think anything is our right. We do not deserve anything; all is given as gift by God.
This is very challenging but unless we take up the challenge of adopting (and living) this worldview, we are living a
domesticated Christianity that is shallow. The way of Jesus is always uncomfortable, unsettling, and challenging.
Take time to reflect on the ways that you interact with others and the world. Can you see that you do not deserve anything and that all is gift from God? Can you thank God for God’s many gifts today?
