Parable of the Guests

⁷ Now Jesus began telling a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how they had been selecting the places of honor at the table, saying to them, ⁸ “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down [to eat] at the place of honor, since a more distinguished person than you may have been invited by the host,^{(A) 9} and he who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your place,’ and then, in disgrace you proceed to take the last place. ¹⁰ But when you are invited, go and sit down [to eat] at the last place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; and then you will be honored in the presence of all who are at the table with you. ¹¹ For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled [before others], and he who habitually humbles himself (keeps a realistic self-view) will be exalted.”

¹² Jesus also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or wealthy neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment. ¹³ But when you give a banquet or a reception, invite the poor, the disabled, the lame, and the blind, ¹⁴ and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the ^[a]righteous (the just, the upright).”