Luke 14:2-32

2And 1there in front of Him was a man suffering from dropsy. 3And Jesus answered and spoke to the 23lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “4Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” 4But they kept silent. And He took hold of him and healed him, and sent him away. 5And He said to them, “56Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?” 67And they could make no reply to this.

7And He began speaking a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how 8they had been picking out the places of honor at the table, saying to them, 8“When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, 9do not 10take the place of honor, for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him, 9and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then 11in disgrace you 12proceed to occupy the last place. 10But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, 13move up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who 14are at the table with you. 1115For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

12And He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment. 13But when you give a 16reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14and you will be blessed, since they 17do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at 18the resurrection of the righteous.”

15When one of those who were reclining at the table with Him heard this, he said to Him, “19Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” 16But He said to him, “20A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; 17and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ 18But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a 21piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; 22please consider me excused.’ 19Another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; 23please consider me excused.’ 20Another one said, ‘24I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’ 21And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ 22And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ 23And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the 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 shall taste of my dinner.’”

25Now 25large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, 26“26If anyone comes to Me, and does not 27hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. 27Whoever does not 28carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? 29Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, 30saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and 29consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends 30a delegation and asks for terms of peace.