Category: Luke

[13:22] Jesus went through towns and villages, teaching the people and making his way toward Jerusalem.

[13:23] Someone asked him, “Sir, will just a few people be saved?” Jesus answered them,

[13:24] “Do your best to go in through the narrow door; because many people will surely try to go in but will not be able.

[13:25] The master of the house will get up and close the door; then when you stand outside and begin to knock on the door and say, ‘Open the door for us, sir!’ he will answer you, ‘I don't know where you come from!’

[13:26] Then you will answer, ‘We ate and drank with you; you taught in our town!’

[13:27] But he will say again, ‘I don't know where you come from. Get away from me, all you wicked people!’

[13:28] How you will cry and gnash your teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God, while you are thrown out!

[13:29] People will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down at the feast in the Kingdom of God.

[13:30] Then those who are now last will be first, and those who are now first will be last.”

[13:31] At that same time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, “You must get out of here and go somewhere else, because Herod wants to kill you.”

[13:32] Jesus answered them, “Go and tell that fox: ‘I am driving out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I shall finish my work.’

[13:33] Yet I must be on my way today, tomorrow, and the next day; it is not right for a prophet to be killed anywhere except in Jerusalem.

[13:34] “Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You kill the prophets, you stone the messengers God has sent you! How many times I wanted to put my arms around all your people, just as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would not let me!

[13:35] And so your Temple will be abandoned. I assure you that you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘God bless him who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

[14:1] One Sabbath Jesus went to eat a meal at the home of one of the leading Pharisees; and people were watching Jesus closely.

[14:2] A man whose legs and arms were swollen came to Jesus,

[14:3] and Jesus spoke up and asked the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees, “Does our Law allow healing on the Sabbath or not?”

[14:4] But they would not say a thing. Jesus took the man, healed him, and sent him away.

[14:5] Then he said to them, “If any one of you had a child or an ox that happened to fall in a well on a Sabbath, would you not pull it out at once on the Sabbath itself?”

[14:6] But they were not able to answer him about this.

[14:7] Jesus noticed how some of the guests were choosing the best places, so he told this parable to all of them:

[14:8] “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,

[14:9] 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.

[14:10] 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 honor in the presence of all the other guests.

[14:11] For those who make themselves great will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be made great.”

[14:12] 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 neighbors—for they will invite you back, and in this way you will be paid for what you did.

[14:13] When you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind;

[14:14] 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.”

[14:15] When one of the guests sitting at the table heard this, he said to Jesus, “How happy are those who will sit down at the feast in the Kingdom of God!”

[14:16] Jesus said to him, “There was once a man who was giving a great feast to which he invited many people.

[14:17] When it was time for the feast, he sent his servant to tell his guests, ‘Come, everything is ready!’

[14:18] But they all began, one after another, to make excuses. The first one told the servant, ‘I have bought a field and must go and look at it; please accept my apologies.’

[14:19] Another one said, ‘I have bought five pairs of oxen and am on my way to try them out; please accept my apologies.’

[14:20] Another one said, ‘I have just gotten married, and for that reason I cannot come.’

[14:21] The servant went back and told all this to his master. The master was furious and said to his servant, ‘Hurry out to the streets and alleys of the town, and bring back the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’

[14:22] Soon the servant said, ‘Your order has been carried out, sir, but there is room for more.’

[14:23] So the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the country roads and lanes and make people come in, so that my house will be full.

[14:24] I tell you all that none of those who were invited will taste my dinner!’”

[14:25] Once when large crowds of people were going along with Jesus, he turned and said to them,

[14:26] “Those who come to me cannot be my disciples unless they love me more than they love father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and themselves as well.

[14:27] Those who do not carry their own cross and come after me cannot be my disciples.

[14:28] If one of you is planning to build a tower, you sit down first and figure out what it will cost, to see if you have enough money to finish the job.

[14:29] If you don't, you will not be able to finish the tower after laying the foundation; and all who see what happened will make fun of you.

[14:30] ‘You began to build but can't finish the job!’ they will say.

[14:31] If a king goes out with ten thousand men to fight another king who comes against him with twenty thousand men, he will sit down first and decide if he is strong enough to face that other king.

[14:32] If he isn't, he will send messengers to meet the other king to ask for terms of peace while he is still a long way off.

[14:33] In the same way,” concluded Jesus, “none of you can be my disciple unless you give up everything you have.

[14:34] “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, there is no way to make it salty again.

[14:35] It is no good for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown away. Listen, then, if you have ears!”

[15:1] One day when many tax collectors and other outcasts came to listen to Jesus,

[15:2] the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law started grumbling, “This man welcomes outcasts and even eats with them!”

[15:3] So Jesus told them this parable:

[15:4] “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them—what do you do? You leave the other ninety-nine sheep in the pasture and go looking for the one that got lost until you find it.

[15:5] When you find it, you are so happy that you put it on your shoulders

[15:6] and carry it back home. Then you call your friends and neighbors together and say to them, ‘I am so happy I found my lost sheep. Let us celebrate!’

[15:7] In the same way, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine respectable people who do not need to repent.

[15:8] “Or suppose a woman who has ten silver coins loses one of them—what does she do? She lights a lamp, sweeps her house, and looks carefully everywhere until she finds it.

[15:9] When she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, and says to them, ‘I am so happy I found the coin I lost. Let us celebrate!’

[15:10] In the same way, I tell you, the angels of God rejoice over one sinner who repents.”

[15:11] Jesus went on to say, “There was once a man who had two sons.

[15:12] The younger one said to him, ‘Father, give me my share of the property now.’ So the man divided his property between his two sons.

[15:13] After a few days the younger son sold his part of the property and left home with the money. He went to a country far away, where he wasted his money in reckless living.

[15:14] He spent everything he had. Then a severe famine spread over that country, and he was left without a thing.

[15:15] So he went to work for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him out to his farm to take care of the pigs.

[15:16] He wished he could fill himself with the bean pods the pigs ate, but no one gave him anything to eat.

[15:17] At last he came to his senses and said, ‘All my father's hired workers have more than they can eat, and here I am about to starve!

[15:18] I will get up and go to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against God and against you.

[15:19] I am no longer fit to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired workers.”’

[15:20] So he got up and started back to his father. “He was still a long way from home when his father saw him; his heart was filled with pity, and he ran, threw his arms around his son, and kissed him.

[15:21] ‘Father,’ the son said, ‘I have sinned against God and against you. I am no longer fit to be called your son.’

[15:22] But the father called to his servants. ‘Hurry!’ he said. ‘Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet.

[15:23] Then go and get the prize calf and kill it, and let us celebrate with a feast!

[15:24] For this son of mine was dead, but now he is alive; he was lost, but now he has been found.’ And so the feasting began.

[15:25] “In the meantime the older son was out in the field. On his way back, when he came close to the house, he heard the music and dancing.

[15:26] So he called one of the servants and asked him, ‘What's going on?’

[15:27] ‘Your brother has come back home,’ the servant answered, ‘and your father has killed the prize calf, because he got him back safe and sound.’

[15:28] The older brother was so angry that he would not go into the house; so his father came out and begged him to come in.

[15:29] But he spoke back to his father, ‘Look, all these years I have worked for you like a slave, and I have never disobeyed your orders. What have you given me? Not even a goat for me to have a feast with my friends!

[15:30] But this son of yours wasted all your property on prostitutes, and when he comes back home, you kill the prize calf for him!’

[15:31] ‘My son,’ the father answered, ‘you are always here with me, and everything I have is yours.

[15:32] But we had to celebrate and be happy, because your brother was dead, but now he is alive; he was lost, but now he has been found.’”