A Healing at the Pharisee’s Table
1One Sabbath he went to eat at the house of one of the leading Pharisees, and they were watching him closely. 2And there in front of him was a man suffering from dropsy. 3Jesus put the question to the experts in the law and the Pharisees: “Is it permitted to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” 4They said nothing. So he took hold of the man, healed him and sent him on his way. 5Then he said to them, “Which of you, if his son or his ox falls into a well, will not pull him out at once on the Sabbath day?” 6And they had no answer to give him.
Where to Sit, Whom to Invite
7Noticing how the guests were picking out the places of honor, he told them a parable: 8“When someone invites you to a wedding, do not settle into the place of honor. Someone more distinguished than you may have been invited, 9and the host who invited you both will come and say, ‘Give this man your place,’ and then, humiliated, you will have to take the lowest place. 10Instead, when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he will say, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in front of everyone at the table with you. 11For everyone who lifts himself up will be brought low, and whoever makes himself low will be lifted up.” 12He said as well to the man who had invited him, “When you put on a lunch or a dinner, do not call your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbors, in case they invite you back and you are repaid. 13Instead, when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. 14And you will be blessed, because they have no way to repay you; you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
The Guests Who Would Not Come
15One of those at the table with him heard this and said, “Blessed is the one who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.” 16Jesus said to him, “A man was giving a great dinner and invited many guests. 17At dinner time he sent his servant to tell those invited, ‘Come, it is ready now.’ 18And every one of them began to excuse himself. The first told him, ‘I have bought a field and I have to go out and look at it. Please accept my excuses.’ 19Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen and I am on my way to try them out. Please accept my excuses.’ 20And another said, ‘I have just married a wife, and so I cannot come.’ 21The servant came back and reported all this to his master. Then the owner of the house grew angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ 22The servant said, ‘Master, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’ 23So the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the roads and the hedgerows and press them to come in, so that my house may be full. 24For I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will taste my dinner.’”
Count the Cost
25Large 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, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters, and his own life as well, he cannot be my disciple. 27Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28Which of you, wanting to build a tower, does not first sit down and figure the cost, to see whether he has enough to finish it? 29Otherwise, once he has laid the foundation and cannot complete it, everyone who sees it will start to make fun of him, 30saying, ‘This man started to build and could not finish.’ 31Or what king marching to meet another king in battle does not first sit down and consider whether with ten thousand men he can face the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32If he cannot, then while the other is still far off he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33In the same way, none of you who does not renounce everything he has can be my disciple. 34Salt is good; but if even the salt goes flat, how will it be made salty again? 35It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure heap; it gets thrown away. Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”
