Luke 14  Modern English Version

The Healing of the Man With Edema

14 On the Sabbath they watched Him as He went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees to eat bread. ² There before Him was a man who had edema.^{[a] 3} Jesus said to the lawyers and Pharisees, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” ⁴ But they remained silent. So He took him and healed him, and let him go.

⁵ Then He said, “Which of you having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?” ⁶ And they could not answer Him regarding these things.

A Lesson to Guests and a Host

⁷ When He marked how they chose the seats of honor, He told a parable to those who were invited, saying to them, ⁸ “When you are invited by any man to a wedding banquet, do not sit down in a seat of honor, lest a more honorable man than you be invited by him; ⁹ and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give this man the seat,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest seat. ¹⁰ But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest seat, so that when he who invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher.’ Then you will have respect in the presence of those who sit at dinner with you. ¹¹ For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

¹² Then He said also to the one who invited Him, “When you prepare a dinner or a supper, do not call your friends or your brothers or your kinsmen or your rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and you be repaid. ¹³ But when you prepare a banquet, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴ and you will be blessed, for they cannot repay you. You shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

The Parable of the Great Banquet^(A)

¹⁵ When one of those who sat at dinner with Him heard this, he said to Him, “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!”

¹⁶ Then He said to him, “A man prepared a banquet and invited many, ¹⁷ and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now prepared.’

¹⁸ “But they all with one mind began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land, and I must go and see it. I ask you to excuse me.’

¹⁹ “Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to prove them. I ask you to excuse me.’

²⁰ “Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’

²¹ “The servant came and reported this to his master. Then the master of the house in anger said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.’

²² “The servant said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and yet there is room.’

²³ “Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges, 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 my supper.’ ”

The Cost of Discipleship^(B)

²⁵ Large crowds went with Him. And He turned and said to them, ²⁶ “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. ²⁷ And whoever does not bear his cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple.

²⁸ “For who among you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost to see whether he has resources to complete it? ²⁹ Otherwise, perhaps, after he has laid the foundation and is not able to complete it, all who see it will begin to mock him, ³⁰ saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to complete it.’

³¹ “Or what king, going to wage war against another king, does not sit down first and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? ³² Otherwise, while the other is yet at a distance, he sends a delegation and requests conditions of peace. ³³ So likewise, any of you who does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.

Tasteless Salt^(C)

³⁴ “Salt is good. But if the salt has lost its saltiness, how shall it be made salty? ³⁵ It is fit neither for the land nor for the manure pile. So men throw it out.

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”