Luke
One Sabbath Jesus went to the house of one of the leaders of the
Pharisees to have a meal, and they were watching him closely.
Right in front
of him was a man suffering from limbs swollen with fluid.
So Jesus asked
the experts in the Law and the Pharisees, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath
or not?”
But they kept quiet. Jesus touched the man, healed him, and sent
him on his way.
Then Jesus said to them, “If your son or your ox fell into a
well on a Sabbath day, would you not immediately go and pull him out?”
And they were not able to answer.
Then he told a parable to the guests who had been invited to the meal, as
he had noticed that they were choosing the seats of honor:
“When you are
invited by someone to a wedding reception, do not sit in the place of honor,
in case someone more important than you may have been invited.
Your host
may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then you will be
embarrassed to have to move to the last seat.
Instead, when you are invited
somewhere, go and sit in the last seat, so that when your host comes in, he
may say to you, ‘My friend, please move up to a better seat.’ Then you will
be honored in front of all the guests.
For those who exalt themselves will be
humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
He went on to say to the one who had invited him, “When you give a
lunch or dinner party, do not invite your friends, brothers, relatives or rich
neighbors, because they may invite you in return, and you would be paid
back.
Instead, when you give a banquet, invite the poor, disabled, lame, and blind,
and you will be blessed, because they have no way of repaying you.
But you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
When one of those eating at the table with him heard what he said, he
said to Jesus, “How blessed are those who will feast in the Kingdom of God!”
Jesus said to him, “There was a man who was giving a great banquet, and
he invited many people.
At the time of the dinner he sent his servant to say
to everyone who had been invited, ‘Come, because the banquet is ready.’
But they all began to make excuses. The first one said, ‘I have bought a
field and I have to go and see it. Please excuse me.’
Another said, ‘I have
bought five pairs of oxen and I am going to try them out. Please excuse me.’
Another said,
‘I just got married and so I cannot come.’
So the servant
returned and told his master what they said. Then the head of the house
became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out at once into the streets and
alleys of the town, and bring in here the poor, disabled, blind and lame.’
Then the servant said, ‘Master, I did what you commanded me, and there is
still room.’
So the master said to the servant, ‘Go out on the roads and
paths, and urge people to come, so that my house may be full.
I tell you, not
one of those people who were invited will taste my banquet.’”
Large crowds were going along with Jesus, and he turned and said to
them,
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate
his own father and
mother, wife and children, and brothers and sisters — and even his own life
— he cannot be my disciple.
Whoever does not carry his own cross and
follow me cannot be my disciple.
If you wanted to build a tower, would you
not first sit down and calculate how much it would cost, to see if you have
enough to finish it?
Otherwise, after you laid a foundation and then were not
able to finish it, everyone watching would laugh at you and say,
‘This
person started building but could not finish.’
What king who is going to
battle with another king, does not first sit down and work out if he and his ten
thousand men are strong enough against the one coming against him with
twenty thousand?
If not, he will send representatives while the other king is
still a long way off, and ask for peace terms.
In the same way, you cannot
be my disciple unless you give up all that you have.
“So salt is good, but if it becomes tasteless, how do you make it taste
again?
It is no good for the soil or the manure pile; you just throw it out. Whoever has ears to hear, listen!”
Luke