Luke 14:1-14
Jesus at a Pharisee's House
It happened, when he
went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees on a Sabbath to
eat bread, that they were watching him. Behold, a certain man who had
dropsy was in front of him. Jesus, answering, spoke to the
lawyers and Pharisees, saying, "Is it lawful to heal
on the Sabbath?"
But they were silent.
He took him, and healed him, and let him go. He answered them, "Which of you, if your son or an ox fell
into a well, wouldn't immediately pull him out on a Sabbath
day?"
They couldn't answer
him regarding these things.
He spoke a parable to
those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the best seats, and
said to them, "When you are invited by anyone to a marriage feast, don't
sit in the best seat, since perhaps someone more honorable than you might
be invited by him, and he
who invited both of you would come and tell you, 'Make room for this
person.' Then you would begin, with shame, to take the lowest place.
But when you are
invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you
comes, he may tell you, 'Friend, move up higher.' Then you will be honored
in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For everyone who exalts himself
will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted."
He also said to the
one who had invited him, "When you make a dinner or a
supper, don't call your friends, nor your brothers, nor your kinsmen, nor
rich neighbors, or perhaps they might also return the favor, and pay you
back. But when you make
a feast, ask the poor, the maimed, the lame, or the blind; and you will be blessed, because
they don't have the resources to repay you. For you will be repaid in the
resurrection of the righteous."