Luke 14
1 On a Sabbath, Jesus went to the house of one of the Pharisees’ leaders to eat, and they watched him closely.
2 And there before him was a man suffering from dropsy.
3 Jesus asked the experts in the Law and the Pharisees, “Is it permitted to heal on the Sabbath or not?”
4 They remained silent. Then he took hold of the man, healed him, and sent him away.
5 And he said to them, “If your son or your ox falls into a well, which of you won’t pull it out at once, even on the Sabbath?”
6 And they could not answer him.
7 When Jesus noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable:
8 “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, don’t take the place of honor. They may have invited someone more important than you.
9 Then the person who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and you will be ashamed as you take the lowest place.
10 But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when the person who invited you arrives, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in front of everyone reclining at the table with you.
11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
12 He also said to the one who had invited him, “When you give a lunch or a dinner, don’t invite your friends, your brothers, your relatives, or rich neighbors. Otherwise, they may invite you in return, and you will have been repaid.
13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the disabled, the lame, and the blind.
14 And you will be happy, because they have no way to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
15 When one of those reclining at the table heard this, he said to him, “Happy is the one who will eat bread in the Kingdom of God!”
16 He replied, “A man was going to give a large dinner, and he invited many people.
17 At dinner time, he sent his servant to tell the guests, ‘Come, because everything is ready now.’
18 But they all began, without exception, to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I bought a field and need to go see it; please excuse me.’
19 Another said, ‘I bought five pairs of oxen, and I’m going to try them out; please excuse me.’
20 And another said, ‘I’ve married, and so I can’t come.’
21 The servant returned and reported these things to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go quickly through the city squares and alleys, and bring here the poor, the disabled, the blind, and the lame.’
22 The servant said, ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’
23 Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out along the roads and beside the fences, and urge people to come in, so that my house may be filled.
24 For I tell you, none of those men who were invited will taste my dinner.’”
25 Large crowds were going with him, and he turned and said to them:
26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters—and even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.
27 Whoever does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
28 For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and calculate the cost, to see whether he has enough to finish it?
29 Otherwise, after laying the foundation and being unable to finish, everyone who sees it will begin to mock him.
30 They will say, ‘This man began to build and couldn’t finish.’
31 Or what king, going to war against another king, doesn’t first sit down and consider whether he can meet the one coming against him with twenty thousand, using ten thousand?
32 If he cannot, while the other king is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for peace terms.
33 So then, any one of you who does not renounce everything he has cannot be my disciple.
34 Salt is good; but if even salt loses its flavor, what will make it salty again?
35 It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; people throw it out. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”
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