Jesus told us not to invite brothers and sisters, but he didn't mean it.

Monday, 10/31/11

Jesus told us not to invite friends, brothers, sisters or relatives or wealthy neighbors when we hold a lunch or dinner. Are we to take him seriously? Are there to be no family get-togethers? No business lunches?

Is networking evil?

I don’t think so. There is an old saying: “A word to the wise is sufficient.” I suppose that means you don’t need to treat intelligent, experienced people like babies. Like, if you say, “Meet me at eight at that place on the right side of the street,” you don’t need to say, “The eight is when the big hand is at twelve and the little at eight; and your right side is the one where you are not wearing a ring.” The old saying means you must expect people to be wise enough not to need things spelled out.

Jesus felt we were wise enough to catch on when he was using hyperbole. I just looked up the definition of hyperbole: “Exaggeration for effect and not meant to be taken literally.”

Jesus used hyperbole a lot. He was using hyperbole when he said, “If your right eye is a cause of scandal for you pluck it out.” In James Hilton’s novel “Knight Without Armor” there was a character nicknamed Popeye. Everyone scorned him for taking Jesus literally, and plucking his eye out after peeking at something he shouldn’t have peeked at.   

It sound blasphemous to say this, but sometimes you have to take the Bible with a grain of salt.