‘But when you make a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they have no means with which to recompense you, for you will be recompensed in the resurrection of the righteous.”
What he should rather do is invite the poor and needy, who have no way of recompensing him, and then he will be blessed, and he will receive his recompense in the heavenly kingdom, a recompense far greater and more lasting than any recompense on earth. The promise of blessing on those who give to those who have nothing is a constant one in the Old Testament (see Deuteronomy 15:10-11; Proverbs 11:24; Proverbs 19:17; Proverbs 28:27).
‘The resurrection of the righteous.' The righteous are those who have walked rightly before God and are pleasing to Him. They are in the end ‘the righteous' because they have been made righteous in Christ (1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21). The resurrection of the righteous is a constant New Testament theme, and follows on from the resurrection of Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:23). Elsewhere we learn that it is a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous (Luke 10:12; Acts 24:15; John 5:29; Romans 2:5-6), but here Jesus is concentrating on the positive side of it. The Pharisees also firmly believed in the resurrection, which had been taught in Daniel 12:2-3. The thought here is not that by doing this they will inherit eternal life, but that those who do inherit eternal life, and have done this will be rewarded. Jesus may well have recognised in the heart of this Pharisee, partly revealed in his invitation to Jesus, that he would eventually be, if he was not already, one of the righteous.