Luke 14
14
1-3One time when Jesus went for a Sabbath meal with one of the top leaders of the Pharisees, all the guests had their eyes on him, watching his every move. Right before him there was a man hugely swollen in his joints. So Jesus asked the religion scholars and Pharisees present, “Is it permitted to heal on the Sabbath? Yes or no?”
4-6They were silent. So he took the man, healed him, and sent him on his way. Then he said, “Is there anyone here who, if a child or animal fell down a well, wouldn’t rush to pull him out immediately, not asking whether or not it was the Sabbath?” They were stumped. There was nothing they could say to that.
Invite the Misfits
7-9He went on to tell a story to the guests around the table. Noticing how each had tried to elbow into the place of honor, he said, “When someone invites you to dinner, don’t take the place of honor. Somebody more important than you might have been invited by the host. Then he’ll come and call out in front of everybody, ‘You’re in the wrong place. The place of honor belongs to this man.’ Embarrassed, you’ll have to make your way to the very last table, the only place left.
10-11“When you’re invited to dinner, go and sit at the last place. Then when the host comes he may very well say, ‘Friend, come up to the front.’ That will give the dinner guests something to talk about! What I’m saying is, If you walk around all high and mighty, you’re going to end up flat on your face. But if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.”
12-14Then he turned to the host. “The next time you put on a dinner, don’t just invite your friends and family and rich neighbors, the kind of people who will return the favor. Invite some people who never get invited out, the misfits from the wrong side of the tracks. You’ll be—and experience—a blessing. They won’t be able to return the favor, but the favor will be returned—oh, how it will be returned!—at the resurrection of God’s people.”
The Story of the Dinner Party
15That triggered a response from one of the guests: “How fortunate the one who gets to eat dinner in God’s kingdom!”
16-17Jesus followed up. “Yes. For there was once a man who threw a great dinner party and invited many. When it was time for dinner, he sent out his servant to the invited guests, saying, ‘Come on in; the food’s on the table.’
18“Then they all began to beg off, one after another making excuses. The first said, ‘I bought a piece of property and need to look it over. Send my regrets.’
19“Another said, ‘I just bought five teams of oxen, and I really need to check them out. Send my regrets.’
20“And yet another said, ‘I just got married and need to get home to my wife.’
21“The servant went back and told the master what had happened. He was outraged and told the servant, ‘Quickly, get out into the city streets and alleys. Collect all who look like they need a square meal, all the misfits and homeless and down-and-out you can lay your hands on, and bring them here.’
22“The servant reported back, ‘Master, I did what you commanded—and there’s still room.’
23-24“The master said, ‘Then go to the country roads. Whoever you find, drag them in. I want my house full! Let me tell you, not one of those originally invited is going to get so much as a bite at my dinner party.’”
Figure the Cost
25-27One day when large groups of people were walking along with him, Jesus turned and told them, “Anyone who comes to me but refuses to let go of father, mother, spouse, children, brothers, sisters—yes, even one’s own self!—can’t be my disciple. Anyone who won’t shoulder his own cross and follow behind me can’t be my disciple.
28-30“Is there anyone here who, planning to build a new house, doesn’t first sit down and figure the cost so you’ll know if you can complete it? If you only get the foundation laid and then run out of money, you’re going to look pretty foolish. Everyone passing by will poke fun at you: ‘He started something he couldn’t finish.’
31-32“Or can you imagine a king going into battle against another king without first deciding whether it is possible with his ten thousand troops to face the twenty thousand troops of the other? And if he decides he can’t, won’t he send an emissary and work out a truce?
33“Simply put, if you’re not willing to take what is dearest to you, whether plans or people, and kiss it good-bye, you can’t be my disciple.
34-35“Salt is excellent. But if the salt goes flat, it’s useless, good for nothing.
“Are you listening to this? Really listening?”
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Luke 14
14
1And it came to pass, on his going into the house of a certain one of the chiefs of the Pharisees, on a sabbath, to eat bread, that they were watching him,
2and lo, there was a certain dropsical man before him;
3and Jesus answering spake to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, ‘Is it lawful on the sabbath-day to heal?’
4and they were silent, and having taken hold of [him], he healed him, and let [him] go;
5and answering them he said, ‘Of which of you shall an ass or ox fall into a pit, and he will not immediately draw it up on the sabbath-day?’
6and they were not able to answer him again unto these things.
7And he spake a simile unto those called, marking how they were choosing out the first couches, saying unto them,
8‘When thou mayest be called by any one to marriage-feasts, thou mayest not recline on the first couch, lest a more honourable than thou may have been called by him,
9and he who did call thee and him having come shall say to thee, Give to this one place, and then thou mayest begin with shame to occupy the last place.
10‘But, when thou mayest be called, having gone on, recline in the last place, that when he who called thee may come, he may say to thee, Friend, come up higher; then thou shalt have glory before those reclining with thee;
11because every one who is exalting himself shall be humbled, and he who is humbling himself shall be exalted.’
12And he said also to him who did call him, ‘When thou mayest make a dinner or a supper, be not calling thy friends, nor thy brethren, nor thy kindred, nor rich neighbours, lest they may also call thee again, and a recompense may come to thee;
13but when thou mayest make a feast, be calling poor, maimed, lame, blind,
14and happy thou shalt be, because they have not to recompense thee, for it shall be recompensed to thee in the rising again of the righteous.’
15And one of those reclining with him, having heard these things, said to him, ‘Happy [is] he who shall eat bread in the reign of God;’
16and he said to him, ‘A certain man made a great supper, and called many,
17and he sent his servant at the hour of the supper to say to those having been called, Be coming, because now are all things ready.
18‘And they began with one consent all to excuse themselves: The first said to him, A field I bought, and I have need to go forth and see it; I beg of thee, have me excused.
19‘And another said, Five yoke of oxen I bought, and I go on to prove them; I beg of thee, have me excused:
20and another said, A wife I married, and because of this I am not able to come.
21‘And that servant having come, told to his lord these things, then the master of the house, having been angry, said to his servant, Go forth quickly to the broad places and lanes of the city, and the poor, and maimed, and lame, and blind, bring in hither.
22‘And the servant said, Sir, it hath been done as thou didst command, and still there is room.
23‘And the lord said unto the servant, Go forth to the ways and hedges, and constrain to come in, that my house may be filled;
24for I say to you, that none of those men who have been called shall taste of my supper.’
25And there were going on with him great multitudes, and having turned, he said unto them,
26‘If any one doth come unto me, and doth not hate his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, and yet even his own life, he is not able to be my disciple;
27and whoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, is not able to be my disciple.
28‘For who of you, willing to build a tower, doth not first, having sat down, count the expence, whether he have the things for completing?
29lest that he having laid a foundation, and not being able to finish, all who are beholding may begin to mock him,
30saying — This man began to build, and was not able to finish.
31‘Or what king going on to engage with another king in war, doth not, having sat down, first consult if he be able with ten thousand to meet him who with twenty thousand is coming against him?
32and if not so — he being yet a long way off — having sent an embassy, he doth ask the things for peace.
33‘So, then, every one of you who doth not take leave of all that he himself hath, is not able to be my disciple.
34‘The salt [is] good, but if the salt doth become tasteless, with what shall it be seasoned?
35neither for land nor for manure is it fit — they cast it without. He who is having ears to hear — let him hear.’
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