Luke 14:1-35
14 And when he came into the home of one of the heads of the Pharisees on a sabbath to eat a meal, they were watching him,
2 and there before him was a man with the dropsy.
3 And Jesus answered by saying to the legists and Pharisees “Is it lawful on the sabbath to cure, or not?”
4 but they made no move. And he took him and healed him and dismissed him,
5 and said to them “Which one of you, if his son or his steer falls into a well, will not at once pull him out on the sabbath day?”
6 And they were not able to reply to that.
7 And he told the guests a parable, noticing how they were choosing the first places at the table:
8 “When you are invited to a wedding by anybody, do not take the first place, for fear there may have been invited by him a man of more account than you,
9 and the one who invited you and him shall come and say to you ‘Make room for this man,’ and then you will begin to occupy the last place with humiliation;
10 but when you are invited go and take the last place, in order that when the one who has invited you comes he may say to you ‘Friend, come further up’—then it will redound to your honor before all who are at the table with you.
11 For everyone who lifts himself up will be put down, and he who puts himself down will be lifted up.”
12 And he also said to the one who had invited him “When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not call your friends nor your brothers nor your relatives nor rich neighbors, for fear they should return the invitation themselves and you should have a compensation;
13 but when you give a banquet invite poor men, maimed men, cripples, blind men,
14 and happy shall you be, because they are not able to compensate you; for you shall be compensated at the resurrection of the righteous.”
15 And one of his fellow-guests heard this and said to him “Happy is he who shall eat bread in the Reign of God.”
16 But he said to him “Once upon a time there was a man who gave a great dinner and invited many;
17 and he sent his servant at the hour for the dinner to tell the invited guests ‘Come, it is ready now.’
18 And right off they all began to excuse themselves: the first said to him ‘I have bought a field and am obliged to go out and see it; pray excuse me’;
19 and another said ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen and am on my way to see what they are worth; pray excuse me’;
20 and another said ‘I have got married and consequently cannot come’;
21 and the servant came and reported it to his master. Then the host was angry, and said to his servant ‘Go right out to the streets and alleys of the city and bring the poor and maimed and crippled and blind in here.’
22 And the servant said ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done and there is still room.’
23 And the master said to the servant ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and make people come in, so that my house shall be full;
24 for I tell you none of those guests that were invited shall taste my dinner.’”
25 And great crowds were going along with him, and he turned and said to them
26 “If one comes to me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, and his own self besides, he cannot be a disciple of mine.
27 Whoever does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be a disciple of mine.
28 For which of you, if he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the expense, whether he has enough for carrying it through,
29 for fear lest when he has laid a foundation and is not able to complete it everybody who sees this should begin to make fun of him
30 and say ‘That man began to build and was not able to complete it’?
31 Or what king, marching to join battle with another king, will not sit down and deliberate as to whether with ten thousand he is in a condition to meet the one who is coming against him with twenty thousand?
32 and if not, while he is still a long way off he sends an embassy and asks for terms of peace.
33 So in the same way anyone of you who does not bid farewell to all his property cannot be my disciple.
34 “Salt is a good thing, then, but if the very salt loses its strength with what shall it be seasoned?
35 it is not desirable either on land or on a manure-heap: they throw it outside. Let him who has ears to hear hear!”
