Story of Jesus, December 14th

Luke Chapter 14

One Sabbath day, Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, and the people were watching him carefully. There was a man there who was suffering from dropsy, whose arms and legs were swollen.

Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” But they remained silent.

When they refused to answer, Jesus touched the sick man and healed him and sent him away. Then he turned to them and asked, “If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?” And they had nothing to say.

When Jesus noticed that all who had come to the dinner were trying to sit in the seats of honor near the head of the table, he gave them this advice: “When you are invited to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. The host will come and say, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place.

But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Then Jesus said to the host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid and that will be your only reward. Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Then at the resurrection of the righteous, God will reward you for inviting those who could not repay you.”

When a man sitting at the table heard this, he said to Jesus, “What a blessing it will be to eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”

Jesus replied with this story: “A man prepared a great feast and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell the guests, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all began making excuses.

One said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’

Another said, ‘I have just bought five pairs of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’

Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’

The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became very angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’

After the servant had done this, he reported, ‘There is still room for more.’

So his master said, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes urge anyone you find to come, so that my house will be full. I tell you, none of those I first invited will get even the smallest taste of my banquet.'”

Now great crowds accompanied Jesus and were following him. He turned to them and said, “If you want to be my disciple, you must, in comparison, hate everyone else. If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters; yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry your own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough to complete it? Otherwise, you might only complete the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you. They would ridicule you, saying, ‘There’s the person who couldn’t afford to finish it.'”

“Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not first sit down and deliberate whether his army of ten thousand could defeat the twenty thousand marching against him? And if he can’t, he will send delegation to discuss terms of peace while the enemy is still far away.”

“In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.”

“Salt is good for seasoning. But if it loses its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use for the soil nor for the manure pile. It is thrown away. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!”