A Lesson about Guests

⁷ When Jesus^[a] noticed how the guests were choosing the places of honor, he told them a parable. ⁸ “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, don’t sit down at the place of honor in case someone more important than you was invited by the host.^{[b] 9} Then the host who invited both of you would come to you and say, ‘Give this person your place.’ In disgrace, you would have to take the place of least honor. ¹⁰ But when you are invited, go and sit down at the place of least honor. Then, when your host comes, he will tell you, ‘Friend, move up higher,’ and you will be honored in the presence of everyone who eats with you. ¹¹ Because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the person who humbles himself will be exalted.”

¹² Then he told the man who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, stop inviting only^[c] your friends, brothers, relatives, or rich neighbors. Otherwise, they may invite you in return and you would be repaid. ¹³ Instead, when you give a banquet, make it your habit to invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. ¹⁴ Then you will be blessed because they can’t repay you. And you will be repaid when the righteous are resurrected.”