Luke 14-16 (Contemporary English Version)

Luke 14

Jesus Heals a Sick Man

 ¹One Sabbath, Jesus was having dinner in the home of an important Pharisee, and everyone was carefully watching Jesus. ²All of a sudden a man with swollen legs stood up in front of him. ³Jesus turned and asked the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law of Moses, "Is it right to heal on the Sabbath?" ⁴But they did not say a word.

   Jesus took hold of the man. Then he healed him and sent him away. ⁵Afterwards, Jesus asked the people, "If your son or ox falls into a well, wouldn't you pull him out right away, even on the Sabbath?" ⁶There was nothing they could say.

   

How To Be a Guest

 ⁷Jesus saw how the guests had tried to take the best seats. So he told them:

    ⁸When you are invited to a wedding feast, don't sit in the best place. Someone more important may have been invited. ⁹Then the one who invited you will come and say, "Give your place to this other guest!" You will be embarrassed and will have to sit in the worst place.

    ¹⁰When you are invited to be a guest, go and sit in the worst place. Then the one who invited you may come and say, "My friend, take a better seat!" You will then be honored in front of all the other guests. ¹¹If you put yourself above others, you will be put down. But if you humble yourself, you will be honored.

    ¹²Then Jesus said to the man who had invited him:

   When you give a dinner or a banquet, don't invite your friends and family and relatives and rich neighbors. If you do, they will invite you in return, and you will be paid back. ¹³When you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. ¹⁴They cannot pay you back. But God will bless you and reward you when his people rise from death.

   

The Great Banquet

(Matthew 22.1-10)

 ¹⁵After Jesus had finished speaking, one of the guests said, "The greatest blessing of all is to be at the banquet in God's kingdom!"

    ¹⁶Jesus told him:

   A man once gave a great banquet and invited a lot of guests. ¹⁷When the banquet was ready, he sent a servant to tell the guests, "Everything is ready! Please come."

    ¹⁸One guest after another started making excuses. The first one said, "I bought some land, and I've got to look it over. Please excuse me."

    ¹⁹Another guest said, "I bought five teams of oxen, and I need to try them out. Please excuse me."

    ²⁰Still another guest said, "I have just gotten married, and I can't be there."

    ²¹The servant told his master what happened, and the master became so angry that he said, "Go as fast as you can to every street and alley in town! Bring in everyone who is poor or crippled or blind or lame."

    ²²When the servant returned, he said, "Master, I've done what you told me, and there is still plenty of room for more people."

    ²³His master then told him, "Go out along the back roads and fence rows and make people come in, so that my house will be full. ²⁴Not one of the guests I first invited will get even a bite of my food!"

   

Being a Disciple

(Matthew 10.37,38)

 ²⁵Large crowds were walking along with Jesus, when he turned and said:

    ²⁶You cannot be my disciple, unless you love me more than you love your father and mother, your wife and children, and your brothers and sisters. You cannot come with me unless you love me more than you love your own life.

    ²⁷You cannot be my disciple unless you carry your own cross and come with me.

    ²⁸Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. What is the first thing you will do? Won't you sit down and figure out how much it will cost and if you have enough money to pay for it? ²⁹Otherwise, you will start building the tower, but not be able to finish. Then everyone who sees what is happening will laugh at you. ³⁰They will say, "You started building, but could not finish the job."

    ³¹What will a king do if he has only ten thousand soldiers to defend himself against a king who is about to attack him with twenty thousand soldiers? Before he goes out to battle, won't he first sit down and decide if he can win? ³²If he thinks he won't be able to defend himself, he will send messengers and ask for peace while the other king is still a long way off. ³³So then, you cannot be my disciple unless you give away everything you own.

   

Salt and Light

(Matthew 5.13; Mark 9.50)

 ³⁴Salt is good, but if it no longer tastes like salt, how can it be made to taste salty again? ³⁵It is no longer good for the soil or even for the manure pile. People simply throw it out. If you have ears, pay attention!

   

Luke 15

One Sheep

(Matthew 18.12-14)

 ¹Tax collectors ^[a] and sinners were all crowding around to listen to Jesus. ²So the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law of Moses started grumbling, "This man is friendly with sinners. He even eats with them." ³Then Jesus told them this story:

    ⁴If any of you has a hundred sheep, and one of them gets lost, what will you do? Won't you leave the ninety-nine in the field and go look for the lost sheep until you find it? ⁵And when you find it, you will be so glad that you will put it on your shoulder ⁶and carry it home. Then you will call in your friends and neighbors and say, "Let's celebrate! I've found my lost sheep."

    ⁷Jesus said, "In the same way there is more happiness in heaven because of one sinner who turns to God than over ninety-nine good people who don't need to."

   

One Coin

 ⁸Jesus told the people another story:

   What will a woman do if she has ten silver coins and loses one of them? Won't she light a lamp, sweep the floor, and look carefully until she finds it? ⁹Then she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, "Let's celebrate! I've found the coin I lost."

    ¹⁰Jesus said, "In the same way God's angels are happy when even one person turns to him."

   

Two Sons

 ¹¹Jesus also told them another story:

   Once a man had two sons. ¹²The younger son said to his father, "Give me my share of the property." So the father divided his property between his two sons.

    ¹³Not long after that, the younger son packed up everything he owned and left for a foreign country, where he wasted all his money in wild living. ¹⁴He had spent everything, when a bad famine spread through that whole land. Soon he had nothing to eat.

    ¹⁵He went to work for a man in that country, and the man sent him out to take care of his pigs. ^{[b] 16}He would have been glad to eat what the pigs were eating, ^[c] but no one gave him a thing. ¹⁷Finally, he came to his senses and said, "My father's workers have plenty to eat, and here I am, starving to death! ¹⁸I will go to my father and say to him, `Father, I have sinned against God in heaven and against you. ¹⁹I am no longer good enough to be called your son. Treat me like one of your workers.' "

    ²⁰The younger son got up and started back to his father. But when he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt sorry for him. He ran to his son and hugged and kissed him.

    ²¹The son said, "Father, I have sinned against God in heaven and against you. I am no longer good enough to be called your son."

    ²²But his father said to the servants, "Hurry and bring the best clothes and put them on him. Give him a ring for his finger and sandals ^[d] for his feet. ²³Get the best calf and prepare it, so we can eat and celebrate. ²⁴This son of mine was dead, but has now come back to life. He was lost and has now been found." And they began to celebrate. ²⁵The older son had been out in the field. But when he came near the house, he heard the music and dancing. ²⁶So he called one of the servants over and asked, "What's going on here?"

    ²⁷The servant answered, "Your brother has come home safe and sound, and your father ordered us to kill the best calf." ²⁸The older brother got so angry that he would not even go into the house.

   His father came out and begged him to go in. ²⁹But he said to his father, "For years I have worked for you like a slave and have always obeyed you. But you have never even given me a little goat, so that I could give a dinner for my friends. ³⁰This other son of yours wasted your money on prostitutes. And now that he has come home, you ordered the best calf to be killed for a feast."

    ³¹His father replied, "My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. ³²But we should be glad and celebrate! Your brother was dead, but he is now alive. He was lost and has now been found."

   

Luke 16

A Dishonest Manager

 ¹Jesus said to his disciples:

   A rich man once had a manager to take care of his business. But he was told that his manager was wasting money. ²So the rich man called him in and said, "What is this I hear about you? Tell me what you have done! You are no longer going to work for me."

    ³The manager said to himself, "What shall I do now that my master is going to fire me? I can't dig ditches, and I'm ashamed to beg. ⁴I know what I'll do, so that people will welcome me into their homes after I've lost my job."

    ⁵Then one by one he called in the people who were in debt to his master. He asked the first one, "How much do you owe my master?"

    ⁶"A hundred barrels of olive oil," the man answered.

   So the manager said, "Take your bill and sit down and quickly write `fifty'."

    ⁷The manager asked someone else who was in debt to his master, "How much do you owe?"

   "A thousand bushels ^[e] of wheat," the man replied. The manager said, "Take your bill and write `eight hundred'."

    ⁸The master praised his dishonest manager for looking out for himself so well. That's how it is! The people of this world look out for themselves better than the people who belong to the light.

    ⁹My disciples, I tell you to use wicked wealth to make friends for yourselves. Then when it is gone, you will be welcomed into an eternal home. ¹⁰Anyone who can be trusted in little matters can also be trusted in important matters. But anyone who is dishonest in little matters will be dishonest in important matters. ¹¹If you cannot be trusted with this wicked wealth, who will trust you with true wealth? ¹²And if you cannot be trusted with what belongs to someone else, who will give you something that will be your own? ¹³You cannot be the slave of two masters. You will like one more than the other or be more loyal to one than to the other. You cannot serve God and money.

   

Some Sayings of Jesus

(Matthew 11.12,13; 5.31,32; Mark 10.11,12)

 ¹⁴The Pharisees really loved money. So when they heard what Jesus said, they made fun of him. ¹⁵But Jesus told them:

   You are always making yourselves look good, but God sees what is in your heart. The things that most people think are important are worthless as far as God is concerned.

    ¹⁶Until the time of John the Baptist, people had to obey the Law of Moses and the Books of the Prophets. ^[f] But since God's kingdom has been preached, everyone is trying hard to get in. ¹⁷Heaven and earth will disappear before the smallest letter of the Law does. ¹⁸It is a terrible sin ^[g] for a man to divorce his wife and marry another woman. It is also a terrible sin for a man to marry a divorced woman.

Lazarus and the Rich Man

 ¹⁹There was once a rich man who wore expensive clothes and every day ate the best food. ²⁰But a poor beggar named Lazarus was brought to the gate of the rich man's house. ²¹He was happy just to eat the scraps that fell from the rich man's table. His body was covered with sores, and dogs kept coming up to lick them. ²²The poor man died, and angels took him to the place of honor next to Abraham. ^[h] The rich man also died and was buried. ²³He went to hell ^[i] and was suffering terribly. When he looked up and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side, ²⁴he said to Abraham, "Have pity on me! Send Lazarus to dip his finger in water and touch my tongue. I'm suffering terribly in this fire." ²⁵Abraham answered, "My friend, remember that while you lived, you had everything good, and Lazarus had everything bad. Now he is happy, and you are in pain. ²⁶And besides, there is a deep ditch between us, and no one from either side can cross over."

    ²⁷But the rich man said, "Abraham, then please send Lazarus to my father's home. ²⁸Let him warn my five brothers, so they won't come to this horrible place."

    ²⁹Abraham answered, "Your brothers can read what Moses and the prophets ^[j] wrote. They should pay attention to that." ³⁰Then the rich man said, "No, that's not enough! If only someone from the dead would go to them, they would listen and turn to God."

    ³¹So Abraham said, "If they won't pay attention to Moses and the prophets, they won't listen even to someone who comes back from the dead."