1. One Sabbath Jesus went to eat a meal at the home of one of the leading Pharisees; and people were watching Jesus closely.
2. A man whose legs and arms were swollen came to Jesus,
3. and Jesus asked the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees, “Does our Law allow healing on the Sabbath or not?”
4. But they would not say anything. Jesus took the man, healed him, and sent him away.
5. Then he said to them, “If any one of you had a son or an ox that happened to fall in a well on a Sabbath, would you not pull them out at once on the Sabbath itself?”
6. But they were not able to answer him about this.
7. Jesus noticed how some of the guests were choosing the best places, so he told this parable to all of them:
8. “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place. It could happen that someone more important than you has been invited,
9. and your host, who invited both of you, would have to come and say to you, ‘Let him have this place.’ Then you would be embarrassed and have to sit in the lowest place.
10. Instead, when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that your host will come to you and say, ‘Come on up, my friend, to a better place.’ This will bring you honour in the presence of all the other guests.
11. For all those who make themselves great will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be made great.”
12. Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbours — for they will invite you back, and in this way you will be paid for what you did.
13. When you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind;
14. and you will be blessed, because they are not able to pay you back. God will repay you on the day the good people rise from death.”
15. When one of the men sitting at table heard this, he said to Jesus, “How happy are those who will sit down at the feast in the Kingdom of God!”
16. Jesus said to him, “There was once a man who was giving a great feast to which he invited many people.