7
Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed 7how they chose the places of honor, saying to them,
8"When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him,
9and he who invited you both will come and say to you, 'Give your place to this person,' and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place.
10But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, 8so that when your host comes he may say to you, 'Friend, move up higher.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you.
11For 9everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
12
He said also to the man who had invited him, "When you give 10a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothersb or your relatives or rich neighbors, 11lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid.
13But when you give a feast, 12invite 13the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,
14and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid 14at 15the resurrection of the just."
15
When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, 16"Blessed is everyone who will 17eat bread in the kingdom of God!"
16
But he said to him, 18"A man once 19gave a great banquet and invited many.
17And at the time for the banquet he 20sent his servantc to say to those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.'
18But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.'
19And another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.'
20And another said, 21'I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.'
21So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, 'Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in 22the poor and crippled and blind and lame.'
22And the servant said, 'Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.'
23And the master said to the servant, 'Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.
24For I tell you,d23none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.'"
25
Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them,
2624"If anyone comes to me and 25does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, 26yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
2727Whoever does not 28bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
28For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not 29first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?
29Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,
30saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.'
31Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not 30sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?
32And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.
3331So therefore, any one of you who 32does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.