Luke 14

Jesus Heals on the Sabbath

1It happened that when He went into the house of one of the 1leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, 2they were watching Him 3closely. 2And 4there in front of Him was a man suffering from 5edema. 3And Jesus responded and said to the 67lawyers and 8Pharisees, “9Is 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, “1011Which 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?” 612And they could offer no reply to this.

Parable of the Guests

7Now He began telling a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how 13they had been picking out the places of honor at the table, saying to them, 8“Whenever you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, 14do not 15take the place of honor, for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him, 9and the one who invited you 16both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then 17in disgrace you will proceed to occupy the last place. 10But whenever you are invited, go and 18take the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, 19move up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who are 20dining at the table with you. 1121For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

12Now He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “Whenever you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor wealthy neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you to a meal in return, and that will be your 22repayment. 13But whenever you give a 23banquet, invite people who are poor, who have disabilities, who are limping, and people who are blind; 14and you will be blessed, since they 24do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at 25the resurrection of the righteous.”

15Now when one of those who were reclining at the table with Him heard this, he said to Him, “26Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”

Parable of the Dinner

16But He said to him, “27A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; 17and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, because everything is ready now.’ 18And yet they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I purchased a field and I need to go out to look at it; 28please consider me excused.’ 19And another one said, ‘I bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; 29please consider me excused.’ 20And another one said, ‘30I took a woman as my 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 those who are poor, those with disabilities, those who are blind, and those who are limping.’ 22And later 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 roads and the hedges and press upon them to come in, so that my house will be filled. 24For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my dinner.’”

Discipleship Tested

25Now 31large crowds were going along with Him, and He turned and said to them, 26“32If anyone comes to Me and does not 33hate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. 27Whoever does not 34carry 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 are watching it will begin to ridicule him, 30saying, ‘This person 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 35consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to face the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32Otherwise, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and requests terms of peace. 33So then, none of you can be My disciple who 36does not 37give up all his own possessions.

34“Therefore, salt is good; but 38if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be 39seasoned? 35It is useless either for the soil or the manure pile, so it is thrown out. 40The one who has ears to hear, 41let him hear.”