do not invite your friends: Jesus challenged the common use of banquets to show and increase social status in the community. A host would invite friends of similar status and a few people of higher status. Those honored guests were then expected to invite the host back, which could improve the host’s reputation and position.
Jesus turned this social order upside down by telling his followers to invite people who had no status and could not repay them. In this way, God invites sinful people to share in his banquet of salvation.