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The Gospel of Luke 14

14 One day, which was a day of rest, Jesus went to eat at the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees. This leader had invited other Pharisees to the same meal. They were all watching Jesus carefully to try to find grounds to accuse him. 2 Right there in front of Jesus was a man who had a disease that caused his arms and legs to be very swollen. 3 Jesus asked the experts in Jewish law and the Pharisees who were present, “Is it permitted in the law to heal people on the day of rest, or not?” 4 They did not reply. So Jesus put his hands on the man and healed him. Then he told him he could go. 5 And he said to the others there, “If one of you had a son or an ox that fell into a well on the day of rest, you would pull him out immediately.” 6 Again, they were not able to answer him.

7 Jesus noticed that the people who had been invited to the meal were choosing to sit in the places where important people usually sit. So he gave this advice to them. 8 “When someone invites one of you to a wedding feast, do not sit in a place where important people sit. It may be that he has invited a person who is more important than you to the feast. 9 When the host who invited both of you sees where you are each sitting, he will say to you, ‘Let this person have your seat!’ Then you will have to take the least important seat, and you will be ashamed. 10 Instead, when someone invites you to a feast, go and sit in the least important seat. Then when the host who invited everyone comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, come sit in a better seat!’ Then all the people who are eating with you will see that he is honoring you. 11 For God will humble those who exalt themselves, and he will exalt those who humble themselves.”

12 Jesus also said to the Pharisee who had invited him to the meal, “When you invite people to a midday or evening meal, do not only invite your friends, relatives, or rich neighbors, since they will later repay you by inviting you for a meal. 13 Instead, when you give a feast, invite poor people, crippled people, lame people or blind people. 14 If you do that, God will reward you, because they will not be able to repay you. You can be sure that God will pay you back at the time when he causes righteous people to become alive again.”

15 One of those who were eating with him heard him say that. He said to Jesus, “God has truly blessed everyone who will get to celebrate where God rules everything as king!” 16 Jesus replied to him, “One time a man decided to prepare a large feast. He invited many people to come. 17 When it was time for the feast, he sent his servant to tell those whom he had invited, ‘Come now, because everything is ready!’ 18 But when the servant did that, all of the people whom he had invited began to say why they could not come. The first man to whom the servant went said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go there and see it. Please ask your master to forgive me for not coming!’ 19 Another person said, ‘I have just bought five pairs of oxen, and I must go to examine them. Please ask your master to forgive me for not coming!’ 20 Another person said, ‘I have just gotten married, so I cannot come.’ 21 So the servant returned to his master and reported what everyone had said. The owner of the house was angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and alleys of the city and find poor and crippled and blind and lame people, and bring them here into my house!’ 22 After the servant went out and did that, he came back and said, ‘Sir, I have done what you told me to do, but there is still room for more people.’ 23 So his master said to him, ‘Then go outside the city. Search for people along the highways. Search also along the narrow roads with hedges. Strongly urge the people in those places to come to my house. I want it to be full of people! 24 Moreover I tell you this, those men whom I invited first will not get to enjoy my feast, because they refused to come.’ ”

25 A large crowd of people was traveling with Jesus. He turned toward the people and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me who loves his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters more than he loves me, he can not be my disciple. He must even love me more than he loves his own life! 27 Whoever does not carry his own cross and does not obey me cannot be my disciple. 28 After all, if one of you wanted to build a tower, you would first sit down and determine how much it would cost. That way you would know whether you had enough money to finish it. 29 Otherwise, if you laid the foundation and were not able to finish the rest of the tower, everyone who saw it would make fun of you. 30 They would say, ‘This man started to build a tower, but he was not able to finish it!’ 31 Or suppose a king had 10,000 soldiers in his army. And suppose another king who had 20,000 soldiers was coming to attack him. Before sending his army out to battle, that first king would certainly sit down with his advisors to determine whether he could defeat the other king’s army. 32 Suppose he decided his army could not defeat the other army. Then he would send messengers to the other king while his army was still far away. He would tell the messengers to ask, ‘What must I do to have peace with you?’ 33 So, similarly, if any one of you does not first decide that you are willing to give up all that you have, you cannot be my disciple.”

34 Jesus also said, “You are like salt, which is very useful. But if salt were to lose its saltiness, no one could ever make it taste salty again. 35 If salt does not taste salty anymore, it is no longer any good even for the soil or the manure heap. People just throw it away. You should think carefully about what you just heard me say!”

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