And it happened that when He went into the house of one of the ¹leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, ^athey were watching Him closely. 2 And behold, in front of Him was a man suffering from dropsy. 3 And Jesus answered and spoke to the ^ascholars of the Law and Pharisees, saying, “^bIs it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” 4 But they were silent. And He took hold of him, healed him, and sent him away. 5 And He said to them, “^1aWhich 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?” 6 ^aAnd they could make no reply to this.

7 And He was telling a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how ^athey were picking out the places of honor at the table, saying to them, 8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, ^ado not recline at the place of honor, lest someone more highly regarded than you be invited by him, 9 and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then ^ain shame you ¹proceed to occupy the last place. 10 But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, ^amove up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who recline at the table with you. 11 ^aFor everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

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, lest they also invite you in return and that will be your repayment. 13 But when you give a ¹reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed, since they ¹do not have the means to repay you; for it will be repaid to you at ^athe resurrection of the righteous.”

15 But when one of those who were reclining at the table with Him heard this, he said to Him, “^aBlessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”

16 And He said to him, “^aA man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many. 17 And at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is ready now.’ 18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a ¹piece of land and I need to go out and look at it. I ask you, consider me excused.’ 19 And another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out. I ask you, consider me excused.’ 20 And another one said, ‘^aI have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’ 21 And when the slave came back, he reported these things 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.’ 22 And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ 23 And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the ¹fences, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. 24 For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.’”

25 Now many crowds were going along with Him, and He turned and said to them, 26 “^aIf anyone comes to Me, and does not ¹hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. 27 Whoever does not ^acarry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 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? 29 Lest, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and ^aconsider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends ¹a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So then, none of you can be My disciple who ^adoes not give up all his own possessions.

34 “Therefore, salt is good, but ^aif even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? 35 It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. ^aHe who has ears to hear, ¹let him hear.”