Luke 14

¹It happened that when he went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to share a meal, they were watching him closely. ²And right there in front of him was a man afflicted with dropsy. ³Jesus responded by saying to the legal experts and Pharisees, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?" ⁴But they kept silent. So he took hold of the man, healed him, and sent him away. ⁵Then he said to them, "Which of you, if your son or your ox falls into a well, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?" ⁶And they could not answer this.

⁷He then told an illustration to those who had been invited, having noticed how they were choosing the places of honor for themselves. He said to them: ⁸"When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline in the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by him, ⁹and the one who invited both you and him will come and say to you, 'Give your place to this person.' Then you will begin, in shame, to take the lowest place. ¹⁰Instead, when you are invited, go and recline in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he will say to you, 'Friend, move up higher.' Then you will have honor in the presence of all who are at the table with you. ¹¹For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted."

¹²He also said to the one who had invited him, "When you give a midday meal or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or wealthy neighbors—otherwise they might invite you back, and that would be your repayment. ¹³Instead, when you give a banquet, invite the destitute, the maimed, the lame, the blind. ¹⁴And you will be blessed, because they have no way to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

¹⁵When one of those at the table heard these things, he said to him, "Blessed is the one who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!" ¹⁶But Jesus said to him, "A certain man was preparing a great dinner and invited many guests. ¹⁷At the hour of the dinner, he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.' ¹⁸But one and all, they began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have bought a field and I must go out to see it. Please consider me excused.' ¹⁹Another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen and I am going to try them out. Please consider me excused.' ²⁰And another said, 'I have just married a wife, and for this reason I cannot come.'

²¹The servant returned and reported all this to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, 'Go out quickly into the main streets and alleyways of the city, and bring in the destitute and the maimed and the blind and the lame.' ²²The servant said, 'Master, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.' ²³The master said to the servant, 'Go out to the roads and along the hedgerows and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. ²⁴For I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will taste my dinner.'"

²⁵Now large crowds were traveling with him, and he turned and said to them: ²⁶"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. ²⁷Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

²⁸"For which of you, wanting to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost—whether he has enough to complete it? ²⁹Otherwise, when he has laid the foundation but is unable to finish, everyone watching will begin to ridicule him, ³⁰saying, 'This man started to build and was not able to finish.'

³¹"Or what king, going out to engage another king in battle, does not first sit down and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to confront the one coming against him with twenty thousand? ³²And if not, while the other is still far away, he sends an embassy and asks for terms of peace. ³³In the same way then, any of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.

³⁴"Salt is good, but if even the salt loses its saltiness, with what will it be made salty again? ³⁵It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile—they throw it out. Let the one who has ears to hear, hear."