¹ On one occasion, as Jesus was going, on a Sabbath into the house of one of the leading Pharisees to dine, they were watching him closely.

² There he saw before him a man who was suffering from dropsy.

³ “Is it allowable,” said Jesus, addressing the Students of the Law and the Pharisees, “to work a cure on the Sabbath, or is it not?”

⁴ They remained silent. Jesus took hold of the man and cured him, and sent him away.

⁵ And he said to them: “Which of you, finding that his son or his ox has fallen into a well, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath Day?”

⁶ And they could not make any answer to that.

⁷ Observing that the guests were choosing the best places for themselves, Jesus told them this parable —

⁸ “When you are invited by any one to a wedding banquet, do not seat yourself in the best place, for fear that some one of higher rank should have been invited by your host;

⁹ and he who invited you both will come and say to you ‘Make room for this man,’ and then you will begin in confusion to take the lowest place.

¹⁰ No, when you are invited, go and take the lowest place, so that, when he who has invited you comes, he may say to you ‘Friend, come higher up’; and then you will be honoured in the eyes of all your fellow-guests.

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

¹² Then Jesus went on to say to the man who had invited him: “When you give a breakfast or a dinner, do not ask your friends, or your brothers, or your relations, or rich neighbours, for fear that they should invite you in return, and so you should be repaid.

¹³ No, when you entertain, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind;

¹⁴ and then you will be happy indeed, since they cannot recompense you; for you shall be recompensed at the resurrection of the good.”

¹⁵ One of the guests heard what he said and exclaimed: “Happy will he be who shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God!”

¹⁶ But Jesus said to him: “A man was once giving a great dinner. He invited many people,

¹⁷ and sent his servant, when it was time for the dinner, to say to those who had been invited ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’

¹⁸ They all with one accord began to ask to be excused. The first man said to the servant ‘I have bought a field and am obliged to go and look at it. I must ask you to consider me excused.’

¹⁹ The next said ‘I have bought five pairs of bullocks, and I am on my way to try them. I must ask you to consider me excused’;

²⁰ while the next said ‘I am just married, and for that reason I am unable to come.’

²¹ On his return the servant told his master all these answers. Then in anger the owner of the house said to his servant ‘Go out at once into the streets and alleys of the town, and bring in here the poor, and the crippled, and the blind, and the lame.’

²² Presently the servant said ‘Sir, your order has been carried out, and still there is room.’

²³ ‘Go out,’ the master said, ‘into the roads and hedgerows, and make people come in, so that my house may be filled;

²⁴ for I tell you all that not one of those men who were invited will taste my dinner.’”

²⁵ One day, when great crowds of people were walking with Jesus, he turned and said to them:

²⁶ “If any man comes to me and does not hate his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, yes and his very life, he can be no disciple of mine.

²⁷ Whoever does not carry his own cross, and walk in my steps, can be no disciple of mine.

²⁸ Why, which of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and reckon the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it? —

²⁹ For fear that, if he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish it, every one who sees it should begin to laugh at him,

³⁰ and say ‘Here is a man who began to build and was not able to finish!’

³¹ Or what king, when he is setting out to fight another king, does not first sit down and consider if with ten thousand men he is able to meet one who is coming against him with twenty thousand?

³² And if he cannot, then, while the other is still at a distance, he sends envoys and asks for terms of peace.

³³ And so with every one of you who does not bid farewell to all he has — he cannot be a disciple of mine.

³⁴ Yes, salt is good; but, if the salt itself should lose its strength, what shall be used to season it?

³⁵ It is not fit either for the land or for the manure heap. Men throw it away. Let him who has ears to hear with hear!”