1One Sabbath, when he went to eat a meal in the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him closely.
2And behold, a man who had dropsy was there before him.
3So Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?”
4But they remained silent. And taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him away.
5And he said to them, “Which of you, if a son or an ox falls into a well, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?”
6And they could not reply to this.
7He also told a parable to the guests, when he noticed how they were choosing the places of honor, saying to them:
8“When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not take your place in the seat of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you has been invited by him,
9and the one who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person.’ Then you will proceed in shame to take the last place.
10But when you are invited, go and take your place in the last seat, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests.
11For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
12He also said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and you be repaid.
13But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,
14and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
15When one of the guests heard this, he said to him, “Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”
16But he said to him, “A certain man was giving a great banquet, and he invited many.
17And at the time of the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’
18But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’
19And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. Please have me excused.’
20And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’
21So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the main streets and alleys of the city, and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame here.’
22And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’
23And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the roads and hedges and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled.
24For I tell you, none of those men who were invited will taste my banquet.’”
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 own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, and even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.
27Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
28For which of you, wanting to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it?
29Otherwise, after he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to mock him,
30saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’
31Or what king, when going to wage war against another king, will not first sit down and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet the one coming against him with twenty thousand?
32But if not, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.
33So then, every one of you who does not renounce all his own possessions cannot be my disciple.
34Salt, then, is good. But if the salt loses its flavor, with what will it be seasoned?
35It is suitable neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; they throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
Open in the interactive reader →