Luke 14 - Easy To Read Version

¹ On a Sabbath day, {\cf2\super [252]} Jesus went to the home of a leading Pharisee {\cf2\super [253]} to eat with him. The people there were all watching Jesus very closely.

² A man with a bad disease {\cf2\super [254]} was put before Jesus.

³ Jesus said to the Pharisees {\cf2\super [255]} and teachers of the law, “Is it right or wrong to heal on the Sabbath day?”

⁴ But they would not answer his question. So Jesus took the man and healed him. Then Jesus sent the man away.

⁵ Jesus said to the Pharisees and teachers of the law, “If your son or work animal falls into a well on the Sabbath day, you know you would pull him out quickly.”

⁶ The Pharisees and teachers of the law could say nothing against what Jesus said.

⁷ Then Jesus noticed that some of the guests were choosing the best places to sit. So Jesus told this story:

⁸ “When a person invites you to a wedding, don’t sit in the most important seat. The person may have invited someone more important than you.

⁹ And if you are sitting in the most important seat, then the person that invited you 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 a person invites you, go sit in the seat that is not important. Then the person that invited you will come to you and say, ‘Friend, move up here to this better place!’ What an honor this will be for you in front of all the other guests!

¹¹ Every person that makes himself important will be made humble. But the person that makes himself humble will be made important.”

¹² Then Jesus said to the Pharisee {\cf2\super [256]} that 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 pay you back by inviting you to eat with them.

¹³ Instead, when you give a feast, invite the poor people, the crippled, and the blind.

¹⁴ Then you will have great blessings, because these people cannot pay you back. They have nothing. But God will reward you at the time when good people rise from death.”

¹⁵ One of the men sitting at the table with Jesus heard these things. The man said to Jesus, “What a great blessing it will be for a person to eat a meal in God’s kingdom!”

¹⁶ Jesus said to him, “A man gave a big dinner. The man invited many people.

¹⁷ When it was time to eat, the man sent his servant to tell the guests, ‘Come! The food is ready!’

¹⁸ But all the guests said they could not come. Each man made an excuse. The first man said, ‘I have just bought a field, so I must go look at it. Please excuse me.’

¹⁹ Another man said, ‘I have just bought five pairs of work animals; 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, ‘Hurry! Go into the streets and alleys of the town. Bring me the poor people, 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.’

²³ The master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and country roads. Tell the people there to come. I want my house to be full!

²⁴ None of those people that I invited first will ever eat with me!’”

²⁵ Many people were traveling with Jesus. Jesus said to the people,

²⁶ “If a person comes to me, but will not leave his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, or sisters, then that person cannot be my follower. A person must love me more than he loves anything—even his own life!

²⁷ If a person will not carry the cross (suffering) that is given to him when he follows me, then that person cannot be my follower.

²⁸ If you wanted to build a building, you would first sit down and decide how much it would cost. You must see if you have enough money to finish the job.

²⁹ If you don’t do that, you might begin the work, but you would not be able to finish. And if you could not finish it, then all the people watching would laugh at you.

³⁰ They would say, ‘This man began to build, but he was not able to finish!’

³¹ “If a king is going to fight against another king, first he will sit down and plan. If the king has only 10,000 men, he will plan to see if he is able to defeat the other king that has 20,000 men.

³² If he cannot defeat the other king, then he will send some men to speak to the other king and ask for peace.

³³ It is the same for each of you. You must decide if you can leave everything you have to follow me. If not, you cannot be my follower!

³⁴ “Salt is a good thing. But if the salt loses its salty taste, then you can’t make it salty again.

³⁵ It is worth nothing. You can’t even use it for soil or for plant food. People throw it away.