It happened that when He went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, they were watching Him closely.
And Jesus answered and spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?”
And He began speaking a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor at the table, saying to them,
“When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him,
and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then in disgrace you proceed to occupy the last place.
But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who are at the table with you.
And He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment.
But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,
and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
When one of those who were reclining at the table with Him heard this, he said to Him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”
and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’
But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.’
And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’
And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’
And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled.
For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?
Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand?
Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.
It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him.
Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
“What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?
I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
“Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?
When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost!’
In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.’ So he divided his wealth between them.
And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country, and there he squandered his estate with loose living.
So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him.
And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet;
and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate;
“Now his older son was in the field, and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing.
And he summoned one of the servants and began inquiring what these things could be.
And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound.’
but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’
Now He was also saying to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager was reported to him as squandering his possessions.
The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg.
I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the management people will welcome me into their homes.’
And he summoned each one of his master’s debtors, and he began saying to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light.
And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.
Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you?
And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?
No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were scoffing at Him.
And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God.
“The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.
But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail.
New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995
For Permission to Quote information visit http://www.lockman.org by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif.
All rights reserved.