10. So when you are invited, go sit in a seat that is not important. Then the host will come to you and say, ‘Friend, move up here to a more important place!’ Then all the other guests will respect you.
11. Everyone who makes himself great will be made humble. But the person who makes himself humble will be made great.”
12. Then Jesus said to the man who had invited him, “When you give a lunch or a dinner, don’t invite only your friends, brothers, relatives, and rich neighbors. At another time they will invite you to eat with them. Then you will have your reward.
13. Instead, when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind.
14. Then you will be blessed, because they cannot pay you back. They have nothing. But you will be rewarded when the good people rise from death.”
15. One of the men sitting at the table with Jesus heard these things. The man said to Jesus, “The people who will eat a meal in God’s kingdom are blessed.”
16. Jesus said to him, “A man gave a big banquet and invited many people.
17. When it was time to eat, the man sent his servant to tell the guests, ‘Come! Everything is ready!’
18. “But all the guests said they could not come. Each man made an excuse. The first one said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go look at it. Please excuse me.’
19. Another man said, ‘I have just bought five pairs of oxen; I must go and try them. Please excuse me.’
20. A third man said, ‘I just got married; I can’t come.’
21. So the servant returned. He told his master what had happened. Then the master became angry and said, ‘Go at once into the streets and alleys of the town. Bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’
22. Later the servant said to him, ‘Master, I did what you told me to do, but we still have places for more people.’