1 ONCE, when he went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, they were watching him closely.

2 And there before him was a man who had dropsy.

3 Jesus said to the lawyers and Pharisees, "Is it allowable to heal on the Sabbath or is it not?"

4 They kept quiet. Then taking hold of him he cured him and dismissed him.

5 He said to them, "If the son or the ox of any one of you falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will he not at once draw him out?"

6 They could not say anything in answer to this.

7 Observing how the guests were choosing the best couches, he gave them an illustration:

8 "When you are invited by any one to a wedding, do not recline on the best couch, for some one more honored than you may have been invited,

9 and when he who invited you and him comes he may say to you, 'Give place to this man,' and then you will with shame begin and take the humblest place.

10 But when you are invited, go and recline in the humblest place, so that when he who has invited you comes he may say, 'Friend, come up higher.' Then you will have honor before all your fellow guests.

11 For every one who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

12 He said, too, to the man who had invited him, "When you make a breakfast or a dinner, do not call your friends or your brothers or your relatives, or your rich neighbors, for they may invite you in return and you may be repaid.

13 But when you hold a reception, invite poor men, maimed men, lame men, blind men.

14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, and you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just."

15 On hearing this, one of his fellow guests said to him, "Blessed will he be who eats bread in the kingdom of God!"

16 Jesus said to him, "A certain man made a great dinner and invited many,

17 and sent his servant at the hour of the dinner to tell the guests, 'Come, for things are now ready.'

18 But they all began with one mind to make excuse. The first said to him, 'I have bought a field and must go and see it. I beg of you to have me excused.'

19 Another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen and I am going to try them. I beg of you, have me excused.'

20 Another said, 'I have married a wife and on that account I cannot come.'

21 The servant came back and told his master these things. Then the householder, becoming angry, said to his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and lead in here the poor and maimed and blind and lame.'

22 The servant said, 'Master, what you ordered has been done and still there is room.'

23 The master said to the servant, 'Go out into the roads and hedges and make them come in, so that my house may be filled.

24 I tell you not one of those men that were invited shall taste of my dinner.' "

25 Great crowds were traveling along with him, and he turned and said to them,

26 "If any one comes to me and does not hate his father and his mother and his wife and his children and his brothers and his sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be a disciple of mine.

27 Whoever does not take up his own cross and come after me cannot be a disciple of mine.

28 For which of you wishing to build a tower does not first sit down and compute the cost, whether he has enough to complete it,

29 for fear that, after he has laid the foundation and cannot finish it, all the onlookers may begin to ridicule him,

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

31 Or what king going to meet another king in war does not first sit down and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who is coming against him with twenty thousand?

32 If not, while the other is still far off he sends an embassy and asks for conditions of peace.

33 Just so no one of you who does not renounce all that he has can be a disciple of mine.

34 Salt is good, but if the salt becomes tasteless, with what shall it be seasoned?

35 It is fit neither for the land nor for the manure heap. They throw it away. Let him who has ears to hear, hear."