1On a sabbath day Jesus went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread. They were watching him closely.
2Look, there in front of him was a man whose body was swollen with fluid.
3Jesus spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees and said, "Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day?"
4They said nothing. So he took hold of the man, healed him, and sent him away.
5Then he said to them, "If one of you had a donkey or an ox fall into a pit, would you not pull it out at once, even on the sabbath day?"
6They could not give him any answer to this.
7He noticed how the guests chose the best places at the table. So he told them a parable. He said to them,
8"When someone invites you to a wedding, do not sit down in the best place. Someone more honoured than you may have been invited too."
9"Then the man who invited you both will come and say to you, 'Give this man your place.' And you will be ashamed as you go to take the lowest place."
10"But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place. Then when the man who invited you comes, he may say to you, 'Friend, go up higher.' Then you will be honoured in front of all who sit at the table with you."
11"For whoever lifts himself up will be brought low, and whoever makes himself low will be lifted up."
12Then he also said to the man who had invited him, "When you give a dinner or a supper, do not call your friends, or your brothers, or your relatives, or your rich neighbours. They may invite you back, and so you would be paid in return."
13"But when you give a feast, call the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind."
14"Then you will be blessed, because they cannot pay you back. You will be paid back at the resurrection of the righteous."
15When one of those sitting at the table with him heard this, he said to him, "Blessed is the one who will eat bread in the kingdom of God."
16Then Jesus said to him, "A certain man made a great supper, and invited many people."
17"At supper time he sent his servant to say to those who were invited, 'Come, for everything is ready now.'"
18"But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.'"
19"Another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out. Please excuse me.'"
20"Another said, 'I have married a wife, and so I cannot come.'"
21"So that servant came and told his lord these things. Then the master of the house was angry. He said to his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind.'"
22"The servant said, 'Lord, it is done as you commanded, and there is still room.'"
23"The lord said to the servant, 'Go out into the roads and along the hedges, and make them come in, so that my house may be full."
24"'For I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will taste my supper.'"
25Great crowds were going along with him. He turned and said to them,
26"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life too, he cannot be my disciple."
27"And whoever does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple."
28"Suppose one of you means to build a tower. Would he not first sit down and work out the cost, to see if he has enough to finish it?"
29"Otherwise, when he has laid the foundation and cannot finish it, everyone who sees it will begin to mock him."
30"They will say, 'This man began to build, and was not able to finish.'"
31"Or what king, going to war against another king, does not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to meet the one coming against him with twenty thousand?"
32"If he is not able, then while the other is still far away, he sends messengers and asks for terms of peace."
33"In the same way, any one of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple."
34"Salt is good. But if the salt loses its taste, how can it be made salty again?"
35"It is no use for the land or for the dung heap. People throw it away. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear."