Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

When The Invited Are Not Willing To Come, The Uninvited Will Be Welcomed

¹⁵ And one of the ones reclining back with Him [to eat], having heard these things, said to Him, “Blessed is whoever will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” ¹⁶ But the One said to him— “A certain man was making a great dinner, and he invited many. ¹⁷ And he sent-out his slave at the hour of the dinner to say to the ones having been invited, ‘Come, because it is already prepared’. ¹⁸ And they all alike began to excuse-themselves. The first said to him, ‘I bought a field. And I have a necessity, having gone out, to see it. I ask you, have me excused’. ¹⁹ And another said, ‘I bought five pair^[a] of oxen, and I am proceeding to test them. I ask you, have me excused’. ²⁰ And another said, ‘I married a woman, and for this reason I am not able to come’. ²¹ And having come, the slave reported these things to his master. Then, having become-angry^[b], the house-master said to his slave, ‘Go out quickly into the wide-roads^[c] and lanes^[d] of the city, and bring in here the poor ones and crippled ones and blind ones and lame ones’. ²² And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and there is still room’. ²³ And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out to the roads^[e] and fences, and compel^[f] them to come in, in order that my house may be filled. ²⁴ For I say to you^[g] all that none of those men having been invited will taste my dinner’”.