Luke 14–21

Chapter 14

Jesus Heals on the Sabbath

¹It happened that when He went into the house of one of the ¹leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, ^athey were watching Him closely.

²And ¹there in front of Him was a man suffering from dropsy.

³And Jesus answered and spoke to the ^1alawyers and Pharisees, saying, “^bIs it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?”

⁴But they kept silent. And He took hold of him and healed him, and sent him away.

⁵And He said to them, “^1aWhich one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?”

^6aAnd they could make no reply to this.

Parable of the Guests

⁷And He began speaking a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how ^athey had been picking out the places of honor at the table, saying to them,

⁸“When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, ^ado not ¹take the place of honor, for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him,

⁹and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then ^ain disgrace you ¹proceed to occupy the last place.

¹⁰“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, ^amove up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who ¹are at the table with you.

¹¹“^aFor everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

¹²And 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.

¹³“But when you give a ¹reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,

¹⁴and you will be blessed, since they ¹do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at ^athe resurrection of the righteous.”

¹⁵When one of those who were reclining at the table with Him heard this, he said to Him, “^aBlessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”

Parable of the Dinner

¹⁶But He said to him, “^aA man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many;

¹⁷and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’

¹⁸“But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a ¹piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; ²please consider me excused.’

¹⁹“Another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; ¹please consider me excused.’

²⁰“Another one said, ‘^aI have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’

²¹“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.’

²²“And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’

²³“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.

²⁴‘For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.’ ”

Discipleship Tested

²⁵Now ¹large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them,

²⁶“^aIf anyone comes to Me, and does not ¹hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.

²⁷“Whoever does not ^acarry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

²⁸“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?

²⁹“Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him,

³⁰saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’

³¹“Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and ^aconsider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand?

³²“Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends ¹a delegation and asks for terms of peace.

³³“So then, none of you can be My disciple who ^adoes not give up all his own possessions.

³⁴“Therefore, salt is good; but ^aif even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned?

³⁵“It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. ^aHe who has ears to hear, ¹let him hear.”

Chapter 15

The Lost Sheep

¹Now all the ^atax collectors and the ¹sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him.

²Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, “This man receives sinners and ^aeats with them.”

³So He told them this parable, saying,

⁴“^aWhat man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the ¹open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?

⁵“When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

⁶“And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’

⁷“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.

The Lost Coin

⁸“Or what woman, if she has ten ¹silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?

⁹“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!’

¹⁰“In the same way, I tell you, there is joy ^ain the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

The Prodigal Son

¹¹And He said, “A man had two sons.

¹²“The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me ^athe share of the estate that falls to me.’ So he divided his ^1bwealth between them.

¹³“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.

¹⁴“Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began to be impoverished.

¹⁵“So he went and ¹hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

¹⁶“And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the ¹pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him.

¹⁷“But when he came to ¹his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger!

¹⁸‘I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and ¹in your sight;

¹⁹I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.” ’

²⁰“So he got up and came to ¹his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and ^2aembraced him and kissed him.

²¹“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.’

²²“But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out ^athe best robe and put it on him, and ^bput a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet;

²³and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate;

²⁴for this son of mine was ^adead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to celebrate.

²⁵“Now his older son was in the field, and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing.

²⁶“And he summoned one of the servants and began inquiring what these things could be.

²⁷“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.’

²⁸“But he became angry and was not willing to go in; and his father came out and began pleading with him.

²⁹“But he answered and said to his father, ‘Look! For so many years I have been serving you and I have never ¹neglected a command of yours; and yet you have never given me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends;

³⁰but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your ^1awealth with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’

³¹“And he said to him, ‘Son, you ¹have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours.

³²‘But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was ^adead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.’ ”

Chapter 16

The Unrighteous Steward

¹Now He was also saying to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager was ¹reported to him as ^asquandering his possessions.

²“And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’

³“The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my ¹master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg.

⁴‘I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the management people will welcome me into their homes.’

⁵“And he summoned each one of his ¹master’s debtors, and he began saying to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’

⁶“And he said, ‘A hundred ¹measures of oil.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’

⁷“Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ And he said, ‘A hundred ¹measures of wheat.’ He ^*said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’

⁸“And his ¹master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of ^athis age are more shrewd in relation to their own ²kind than the ^bsons of light.

⁹“And I say to you, ^amake friends for yourselves by means of the ^1bwealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, ^cthey will receive you into the eternal dwellings.

¹⁰“^aHe who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.

¹¹“Therefore…