1 One Sabbath, when He went to take a meal at the house of a Pharisee who was a member of the council, they continued to watch Him closely.
2 Just in front of Him was a man who was suffering from dropsy.
3 He answered the experts in the law and the Pharisees by asking, "Is it right to cure people on the Sabbath or not?"
4 But they made no answer. So He took hold of the man and cured him and sent him away.
5 Then He said to them, "Which of you, if his son or ox falls into a well, will not at once pull him out on the Sabbath?"
6 But they could make no reply to this.
7 When He noticed how the guests were picking out the best places, He told them the following story:
8 "When you are invited by anyone to a wedding supper, never take the best place, for someone of greater distinction than you may have been invited,
9 so that your host may not come and say to you, 'Make room for this man'; and then in embarrassment you will proceed to take and keep the lowest place.
10 But when you are invited anywhere, go and take the lowest place, so that when your host comes in, he may say to you, 'My friend, come up to a better place.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow-guests.
11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted."
12 Then He proceeded to say to the man who invited Him: "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, stop the social custom of inviting your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbors, for they may invite you in return and so you will be repaid.
13 But when you give a reception, make it your habit to invite people that are poor, maimed, crippled, or blind.
14 Then you will be happy, because they cannot repay you; you will be repaid at the resurrection of the upright."
15 But one of the fellow-guests heard this, and said to Him, "Happy will be the man who is fortunate enough to be at the feast in the kingdom of God."
16 Then Jesus said to him: "Once a man was giving a great dinner and invited many people to it.
17 And at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to the invited guests, 'Come, for it is now ready.'
18 But they all in the same attitude began to excuse themselves. The first one said, 'I have just bought a piece of land and I must go and look it over. Please excuse me.'
19 Another said, 'I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I am on my way to try them. Please excuse me.'
21 So the slave returned and reported these answers to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his slave, 'Hurry out into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor, the maimed, the crippled, and the blind.'
23 "Then the master said to his slave, 'Go out on the roads and by the hedges and make the people come in, so that my house may be filled.
24 For I tell you, not one of those people who were invited shall get a taste of my dinner!'"
25 Now great crowds were going along with Him, and all at once He turned and said to them:
26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, and still more, his own life too, he cannot be a disciple of mine.
27 Whoever does not persevere in carrying his own cross and thus following after me, cannot be a disciple of mine.
28 "What man among you, if he wishes to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see whether he has money enough to complete it?
29 Lest, perchance, after he has laid the foundation but cannot complete the building, all who see it begin to make sport of him,
30 and say, 'This fellow started to erect a building but could not complete it!'
31 "Or what king, when he is going to make an attack on another king, does not first sit down and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand soldiers to meet the other king who is coming against him with twenty thousand?
32 And if he cannot, while the other is still far away, he sends envoys and asks for terms of peace.
33 "Just so, no one of you who does not forsake everything that he has, can be a disciple of mine.