One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the
Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. And behold, there was
a man before him who had dropsy. And Jesus responded to the lawyers
and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or
not?” But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and
sent him away. And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or
an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not
immediately pull him out?” And they could not reply to these
things.
Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed
how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, “When you are
invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place
of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by
him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give
your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to
take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the
lowest place, 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 who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself
will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a
dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or
your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in
return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the
poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed,
because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the
resurrection of the just.”
When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these
things, he said to him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in
the kingdom of God!” But he said to him, “A man once gave a great
banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent
his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for
everything is now ready.’ But 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.’ And another said, ‘I have
bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me
excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I
cannot come.’ So 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 to the streets and lanes of the city, and
bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the servant
said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is
room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways
and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be
filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall
taste my banquet.’”
Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them,
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother
and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his
own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own
cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you,
desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the
cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has
laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin
to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to
finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war,
will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten
thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?
And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a
delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of
you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
“Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its
saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for
the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let
him hear.”
