14:1  It happened that when He went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, they watched Him closely.

14:2  And there in front of Him stood a man suffering from dropsy.

14:3  And Jesus answered and spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, "Do you consider it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?"

14:4  But they kept silent. And He took hold of him and healed him, and sent him away.

14:5  And He said to them, "Which 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?"

14:6  And they could make no reply to this.

14:7  And He began speaking a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how they had picked out the places of honor at the table, saying to them,

14:8  "When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for he may invite someone more distinguished,

14:9  and he who invited you both will come and say to you, 'Give your place to this man,' and then in disgrace you proceed to occupy the last place.

14:10  "But when you receive an invitation, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, 'Friend, move up higher'; then you will have honor in the sight of all who sit at the table with you.

14:11  "For everyone who exalts himself will suffer humiliation, and he who humbles himself will become exalted."

14:12  And He also went on to say 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, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will serve as your repayment.

14:13  "But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,

14:14  and you will receive blessings, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will receive your reward at the resurrection of the righteous."

14:15  When one of those who reclined at the table with Him heard this, he said to Him, "Blessings will accrue to everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!"

14:16  But He said to him, "A man gave a big dinner, and he invited many;

14:17  and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had received invitations, 'Come; for everything we have made ready now.'

14:18  "But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, 'I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.'

14:19  "Another one said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I need to try them out; please consider me excused.'

14:20  "Another one said, 'I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.'

14:21  "And 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 the poor and crippled and blind and lame.'

14:22  "And the slave said, 'Master, what you commanded we have done, and we still have room.'

14:23  "And the master said to the slave, 'Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that I may fill my house.

14:24  'For I tell you, none of those men who received invitations shall taste of my dinner.'"

14:25  Now large crowds went along with Him; and He turned and said to them,

14:26  "If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot call himself My disciple.

14:27  "Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot call himself My disciple.

14:28  "For 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?

14:29  "Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and cannot finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him,

14:30  saying, 'This man began to build and could not finish.'

14:31  "Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he has strength enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand?

14:32  "Or else, while the other remains still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.

14:33  "So then, none of you can become My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.

14:34  "Therefore, salt has value; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will we season it?

14:35  "It proves useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; we throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear."