Shared Word Translation
Luke 14
Healing on the Sabbath
And it happened that when he went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, they were watching him closely. And behold, there was a certain man before him suffering from dropsy. And answering, Jesus said to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” But they were silent. And taking hold of him, he healed him and sent him away.
And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that falls into a well, will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?” And they were not able to answer these things.
The Parable of the Wedding Feast
And he was telling a parable to those who had been invited, when he noticed how they were choosing the places of honor, saying to them, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not recline in the place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and the one who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this one,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place.
But when you are invited, go and recline in the lowest place, so that when the one who invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will have honor before all those reclining with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
The Parable of the Great Banquet
And he was also saying to the one who had invited him, “When you make a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and repayment come to you. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they do not have to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
And hearing these things, one of those reclining with him said to him, “Blessed is whoever will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” But he said to him, “A certain man was giving a great banquet and invited many. And at the hour of the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, because everything is now ready.’
And they all alike began to excuse themselves. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it; I ask you, have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to examine them; I ask you, have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and for this reason I am not able to come.’
And the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angered, said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Lord, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the roads and hedges and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. For I say to you that none of those men who were invited will taste my banquet.’”
The Cost of Discipleship
Now large crowds were going with him, and turning he said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he is not able to be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me is not able to be my disciple.
For which of you, wanting to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, after he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’
Or what king, going to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet the one coming against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, every one of you who does not renounce all his own possessions is not able to be my disciple.
Salt Without Taste
“Salt is good; but if even the salt loses its taste, with what will it be seasoned? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; they throw it out. The one who has ears to hear, let him hear.”