Luke 14

1And it happened that when he went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, they were watching him closely.

2And behold, a certain man with dropsy was before him.

3And Jesus answered and said to the lawyers and Pharisees, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?”

4But they kept silent. And taking hold of him, 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 were not able to reply to these things.

7He was telling a parable to those who had been invited, noticing how they were choosing the places of honor, saying to them:

8When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not recline in the place of honor, lest someone more honored than you has been invited by him.

9and the one who invited both you and him will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your place,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the last place.

10But when you are invited, go and recline in the lowest place, so that when the one who invited you comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then there will be honor for you in the presence of all who are reclining with you.

11For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.

12And he was also saying 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, lest they also invite you in return and it become repayment to you.”

13But whenever 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.

15But one of those reclining at the table with him, when he heard these things, said to him, “Blessed is whoever will eat bread in the kingdom of God.”

16But he said to him, “A certain man was making a great dinner and invited many,”

17And at the hour of the dinner he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, because it is already ready.’

18But they all alike began to excuse themselves. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I need to go out and see it. I ask you, consider me excused.’

19And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you, consider me excused.’

20And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and for this reason I cannot come.’

21And when the servant came back, he reported these things to his lord. Then the master of the house, becoming angry, said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the broad streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and disabled and blind and lame.’

22And the servant said, ‘Lord, what you commanded has been done, and there is still room.’

23And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the roads and hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled.’

24For I tell you that none of those men who were invited will taste my dinner.

25Large crowds were traveling with him, and turning, he said to them:

26If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters—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, whether he has enough to complete it?

29otherwise, after he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it may begin to mock him,

30saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’

31Or what king, going to meet another king in war, will not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose 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 even the salt becomes tasteless, with what will it be seasoned?

35It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; they throw it outside. The one who has ears to hear, let him hear.