•1 And it happened that when he went to the house of one of the leading Pharisees, and dined, that they were watching him closely. And behold, there was a man before him who suffered from dropsy. And Jesus spoke forth and said to the legal experts and the Pharisees: Is it lawful or not to give treatment on the sabbath? They held their peace. He took hold of him, and healed him, and dismissed him. And he said to them: Which of you will have a son, or an ox, fall down a well, and will not immediately pull him out on the day of the sabbath? And they were not able to answer that.
And he told the guests a parable, applying it to the way they apportioned their places of honor, and said to them: When you are invited by someone to a wedding, do not recline in the first place, for fear someone he honors more than you may have been invited by him, and he who invited you both may come and say to you: Give this man the place. And then you will begin, with shame, to occupy the last place. But when you are invited, go and set yourself in the last place, so that when your host comes he will say to you: My friend, come on up higher. Then you will have dignity in the sight of all your fellow guests; because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
And he said to the man who had invited him: When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends, or your brothers, or your relatives, or your rich neighbors, lest they too invite you in return and some recompense befall you. But when you are receiving, invite the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind; and you will be blessed, because they are not able to repay you; for it will be repaid you at the resurrection of the righteous.
Hearing this, one of his fellow guests said: Blessed is he who dines in the Kingdom of God. Jesus said to him: A certain man was holding a great feast, and he invited many, and at the time for the feast he sent out his slave to say to those who were invited: Come, since everything is now ready. Then they all at once began to make excuses. The first one said to him: I have bought a piece of land and I must go out and look at it; I pray you, hold me excused. Another said: I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am on my way to try them out. I pray you, hold me excused. And another said: I took a wife in marriage, and therefore I cannot come. And the slave came back and reported all this to his master. Then the master of the house was angry and said to his slave: Go out quickly into the squares and streets of the city and bring here the poor and the maimed and the blind and the lame. And the slave said: Master, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room. And the master said to his slave: Go out to the highways and the hedgerows and force them to come in, so that my house may be full; for I tell you that not one of those other men who were invited shall taste of my feast.
Many multitudes followed him along the way, and he turned and said to them: If someone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, and even his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. He who does not take up his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you who desires to build a tower does not first sit down and reckon the cost, to see if he has enough for its completion? For fear that, after he has set down the foundation and cannot finish it, all the people watching him may begin to tease him and say: This man began to build, and he could not finish. Or what king, on his way to encounter another king in battle, will not fust sit down and think out whether with his ten thousand he is strong enough to meet the man who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he is not, while the other is still far off, he sends an embassy to ask for peace. So, therefore, any of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple. Salt is good: but if the salt loses its power, with what will it be seasoned? It is fit for neither the land nor the dunghill. They throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
tl All the tax collectors and the sinners kept coming around him, to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes muttered, saying: This man receives sinners and eats with them. But he told them this parable, saying: Which man among you who has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them will not leave the ninety-nine in the wilds and go after the lost one until he finds it? And when he does find it, he sets it on his shoulders, rejoicing, and goes to his house and invites in his friends and his neighbors, saying to them: Rejoice with me, because I found my sheep which was lost. I tell you that thus there will be joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, rather than over ninety-nine righteous ones who have no need of repentance. Or what woman who has ten drachmas, if she loses one drachma, does not light the lamp and sweep the house and search diligently until she finds it? And finding it she invites in her friends and neighbors, saying: Rejoice with me, because I found the drachma I lost. Such, I tell you, is the joy among the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
And he said: There was a man who had two sons. And
the younger of them said to his father: Father, give me my appropriate share of the property. And the father divided his substance between them. And not many days afterward the younger son gathered everything together and left the country for a distant land, and there he squandered his substance in riotous living. And after he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that country, and he began to be in need. And he went and attached himself to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him out into the fields to feed the pigs. And he longed to be nourished on the nuts that the pigs ate, and no one would give to him. And he went and said to himself: How many hired servants of my father have plenty of bread while I am dying of hunger here. I will rise up and go to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants. And he rose up and went to his father. And when he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. 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. But his father said to his slaves: Quick, bring the best clothing and put it on him, and have a ring for his hand and shoes for his feet, and bring the fatted calf, slaughter him, and let us eat and make merry because this man, my son, was a dead man and came to life, he was lost and he has been found. And they began to make merry. His older son was out on the estate, and as he came nearer to the house he heard music and dancing, and he called over one of the servants and asked what was going on. He told him: Your brother is here, and your father slaughtered the fatted calf, because he got him back in good health. He was angry and did not want to go in. But his father came out and entreated him. But he answered and said to his father: Look, all these years I have been your slave and never neglected an order of yours, but you never gave me a kid so that I could make merry with my friends. But when this son of yours comes back, the one who ate up your livelihood in the company of whores, you slaughtered the fatted calf for him. But he said to him: My child, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours; but we had to make merry and rejoice, because your brother was a dead man and came to life, he was lost and has been found.