Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your 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

It is wise and reasonable to be selective about who enters our household. Not all friendships are equal. Only the special ones get invited into our homes. After all, our home is a sacred place. Whenever we have a special dinner or luncheon in our home, we are concerned about impressing our guests. There is nothing good or bad about this. It is just human nature. I always want my guest to be impressed with my cooking skills. I want them to say that their time in our home was memorable. This is why we invite people over. We want them to be so amazed by our hospitality that they want to keep coming back. Jesus never said anything against this attitude because it is the right one to possess if we are a host. However, He had a few things to say about the guest list.

Those who walk through the doors of our homes reflect who we are. If we are going to change the guest list, then we also need to change ourselves. We need to change how we perceive people and their social status. If we only deem those who look and act like us to be worthy of being in our homes, then we are no different than the world. In Jesus’ words, we would be just like the Pharisees. Jesus has a higher standard for his disciples. They are to see and judge people according to the Father in Heaven. He has a preference for His guest list. More often than not, it is very different from the ones we make up.

In the area where we meet the children and teens in the city, there are always cultural events. There are always excellent musicians who fill the air with beautiful music. There are always crowds that come to watch these performance. However, one thing is very obvious when we go to these cultural events. There is hardly any homeless person around even when the event is held in the open space. This is quite incredible when you realize that there are more than a thousand homeless people living in the area. Even then, not one of them is present at these special events. No one stops them from participating. They just feel that there are not welcomed. They are not wrong. People do notice them when they are around, unfortunately, not in a positive way. No one is rude to them but it is obvious that they are outsiders. It is strange that the homeless are outsiders in the very place they call home. They are outsiders to everything that is good and edifying that happens in the streets. On the other hand, when there is a crime committed in streets and even when it has nothing to do with them, they are usually the first suspects. They are invisible to everything good and the visibility given to them by society is that of a public nuisance. These are the people Jesus wants us to invite to our homes.

I haven’t mentioned Igor for a long time. He was perhaps the first one among the older teens to become our close friend. We haven’t seen him for sometime. However, we will always remain as friends. He told us something that happened to him once that impacted his life perhaps forever. He had been in the streets since he was 8. Regrettably, from a very young age, he engaged in petty crimes to survive and eventually he graduated into robbing with a gang. He had been imprisoned in the youth reform center more than 20 times. In the peak of his crime spree, he befriended a couple who worked near where he slept in the streets. It started with a casual conversation and eventually grew into a friendship. One day, Igor needed assistance in doing something and the couple volunteered to help him. Immediately after work, they invited him to their apartment so that they could change their clothes before doing what needed to be done. Igor told us that he entered the apartment and noticed that they had many valuable items in their house. As his mindset was that of a thief then, he quickly noticed things like this. There was a moment where he was left alone in the living room while they changed. He was never tempted to steal anything there. He told us that he thought that could never do such a thing to someone who treated like a real person. It was the first time he felt like a human being. He was friend to someone who trusted him enough to open the doors of their home. Igor shared this story in the living room of our house. He was the first teen from the streets to enter our household. He always comes back for a surprise visit. Recently, his visits have been more of a troubled nature. He is struggling and he wants to do what is right. However, in our home, he felt that he could be himself and be vulnerable and not be judged for it. We felt enriched by his presence. We hope to have a visit from him soon.

When Jesus told us to invite people into house, he wasn’t telling us to randomly bring people into our house. Maybe some might read it like this way. I am not in the position to argue with them. They could be right. However, for the time being, I don’t read it this way. I believe that it is a challenge for us to expand our circle of friends. Actually, it goes beyond this. Jesus is challenging us to make it a priority that these “invisible” people become the core of friendship. This requires time and patience and wisdom. All of these can be attained through careful prayer and reflection. The “invisible people” are hidden from us by society. God knows where they are because they are His favored children. There are the ones whom Jesus sought in each place He went. He tells us that they are the source of our blessing. They are the blessing. Each person we know and love as a friend opens a world to us that is previously unknown. The “invisible people” have been rejected by society but they strive because they are remembered by God. They have something to say about God that perhaps the rest of us have taken from granted. Any fresh and new understanding of God is a blessing. Igor thought that the hospitality and trust of the couple made him regain his humanity. However, he did not realize that he was also giving the couple a chance to discover their humanity too.

Sometimes, not often, people ask us what is our objective with these children and teens. Our children and teens come from extremely poor backgrounds. They are the poorest of the poor in the streets. They have survived without us and will continue to do so in the future. The way society is organized, nothing is going to change. Our children and teens will continue to struggle with poverty for the rest of their lives. However, this does not mean that their poverty should dehumanize them. Their social state should not make them invisible as human beings. Jesus showed a concrete way to overcome this exclusion and it is through a friendship. He did not tell us to have a friendship ministry. He just told us to become friends to those who often find themselves friendless. He was friends with the disciples and laid down his life for them. This is his bar. We should start small. We pray that God sends a person who is considered “invisible” and then open our hearts to receive them when we meet them. They could be living next door to us. They could work in our grocery store. They could be anywhere. Maybe we have walked passed them everyday without noticing. Now, Jesus has made it clear that the citizens of His Kingdom need to have a different guest list than the world.