5. Jesus said to the Pharisees and teachers of the law, “If your son or ox falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not pull him out quickly?”
6. And they could not answer him.
7. Then Jesus noticed that some of the guests were choosing the best places to sit. So Jesus told this story:
8. “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, don’t take the most important seat. The host may have invited someone more important than you.
9. And if you are sitting in the most important seat, the host will come to you and say, ‘Give this man your seat.’ Then you will begin to move down to the last place. And you will be very embarrassed.
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.’