Luke 14:2-32

2And 1there in front of Him was a man suffering from 2edema. 3And Jesus responded and said to the 34lawyers and 5Pharisees, “6Is 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, “78Which 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?” 69And they could offer no reply to this.

7Now He began telling a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how 10they 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, 11do not 12take the place of honor, for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him, 9and the one who invited you 13both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then 14in disgrace you will proceed to occupy the last place. 10But whenever you are invited, go and 15take the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, 16move up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who are 17dining at the table with you. 1118For 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 19repayment. 13But whenever you give a 20banquet, invite people who are poor, who have disabilities, who are limping, and people who are blind; 14and you will be blessed, since they 21do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at 22the resurrection of the righteous.”

15Now when one of those who were reclining at the table with Him heard this, he said to Him, “23Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” 16But He said to him, “24A 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; 25please consider me excused.’ 19And another one said, ‘I bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; 26please consider me excused.’ 20And another one said, ‘27I 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.’”

25Now 28large crowds were going along with Him, and He turned and said to them, 26“29If anyone comes to Me and does not 30hate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. 27Whoever does not 31carry 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 32consider 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.