Invited

I was reading Luke 14 yesterday and for some reason these verses stuck with me:

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

The idea of inviting a whole bunch of people over to my house who I don't know and who are poor, crippled, lame, or blind is both appealing and scary to me. Where would you find such people? How would you get them to come? What would happen to your house?

I realize that Jesus was probably not literally saying we should do this, but I started to think a lot what this might look like and what it might feel like. I'm guessing that putting on a banquet in ancient times could be (like today) alot about what you get out of it; connection with people, the gratitude and admiration of others, feeling impressive in your own eyes, etc. It must have shocked the pharisees who were with Jesus for him to suggest such a radical new way of throwing a banquet. I wonder how I would have reacted to Jesus if I was there with them.

Anyway, I'm not sure if Jobina would support me having a banquet at our place for such people - but who knows? I'm also not sure - perhaps someone else has tried this - or you know of someone who has tried it? If so, I'd love to hear about it. I can't quite shake this scripture from my mind . . .