²²He went on his way through cities and villages, teaching, and traveling on to Jerusalem.

²³One said to him, “Lord, are they few who are saved?” He said to them, ²⁴“Strive to enter in by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter in, and will not be able. ²⁵When once the master of the house has risen up, and has shut the door, and you begin to stand outside, and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ then he will answer and tell you, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ ²⁶Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ ²⁷He will say, ‘I tell you, I don’t know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity.’ ²⁸There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets, in the Kingdom of God, and yourselves being thrown outside. ²⁹They will come from the east, west, north, and south, and will sit down in the Kingdom of God. ³⁰Behold, there are some who are last who will be first, and there are some who are first who will be last.”

³¹On that same day, some Pharisees came, saying to him, “Get out of here, and go away, for Herod wants to kill you.”

³²He said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I complete my mission. ³³Nevertheless I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the next day, for it can’t be that a prophet perish outside of Jerusalem.’

³⁴“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often ^c I wanted to gather your children together, like a hen gathers her own brood under her wings, and you refused! ³⁵Behold, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”[1]

[1]13:35 Psalm 118:26

¹It happened, when he went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees on a Sabbath to eat bread, that they were watching him. ²Behold, a certain man who had dropsy was in front of him. ³Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

⁴But they were silent.

He took him, and healed him, and let him go. ⁵He answered them, “Which of you, if your son[1] or an ox fell into a well, wouldn’t immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?”

⁶They couldn’t answer him regarding these things.

[1]14:5 TR reads “donkey” instead of “son”

⁷He spoke a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the best seats, and said to them, ⁸“When you are invited by anyone to a marriage feast, don’t sit in the best seat, since perhaps someone more honorable than you might be invited by him, ⁹and he who invited both of you would come and tell you, ‘Make room for this person.’ Then you would begin, with shame, to take the lowest place. ¹⁰But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes, he may tell you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. ¹¹For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

¹²He also said to the one who had invited him, “When you make a dinner or a supper, don’t call your friends, nor your brothers, nor your kinsmen, nor rich neighbors, or perhaps they might also return the favor, and pay you back. ¹³But when you make a feast, ask the poor, the maimed, the lame, or the blind; ¹⁴and you will be blessed, because they don’t have the resources to repay you. For you will be repaid in the resurrection of the righteous.”

¹⁵When one of those who sat at the table with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is he who will feast in the Kingdom of God!”

¹⁶But he said to him, “A certain man made a great supper, and he invited many people. ¹⁷He sent out his servant at supper time to tell those who were invited, ‘Come, for everything is ready now.’ ¹⁸They all as one began to make excuses.

“The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please have me excused.’

¹⁹“Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I must go try them out. Please have me excused.’

²⁰“Another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I can’t come.’

²¹“That servant came, and told his lord these things. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor, maimed, blind, and lame.’

²²“The servant said, ‘Lord, it is done as you commanded, and there is still room.’

²³“The lord said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. ²⁴For I tell you that none of those men who were invited will taste of my supper.’”

¹Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming close to him to hear him. ²The Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, “This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them.”

³He told them this parable. ⁴“Which of you men, if you had one hundred sheep, and lost one of them, wouldn’t leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one that was lost, until he found it? ⁵When he has found it, he carries it on his shoulders, rejoicing. ⁶When he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ ⁷I tell you that even so there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.

⁸Or what woman, if she had ten drachma[1] coins, if she lost one drachma coin, wouldn’t light a lamp, sweep the house, and seek diligently until she found it? ⁹When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the drachma which I had lost.’ ¹⁰Even so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner repenting.”

[1]15:8 A drachma coin was worth about 2 days wages for an agricultural laborer.

¹¹He said, “A certain man had two sons. ¹²The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of your property.’ He divided his livelihood between them. ¹³Not many days after, the younger son gathered all of this together and traveled into a far country. There he wasted his property with riotous living. ¹⁴When he had spent all of it, there arose a severe famine in that country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵He went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶He wanted to fill his belly with the husks that the pigs ate, but no one gave him any. ¹⁷But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough to spare, and I’m dying with hunger! ¹⁸I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight. ¹⁹I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.”’

²⁰“He arose, and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. ²¹The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

²²“But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe, and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. ²³Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat, and celebrate; ²⁴for this, my son, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’ They began to celebrate.

²⁵“Now his elder son was in the field. As he came near to the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶He called one of the servants to him, and asked what was going on. ²⁷He said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and healthy.’ ²⁸But he was angry, and would not go in. Therefore his father came out, and begged him. ²⁹But he answered his father, ‘Behold, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed a commandment of yours, but you never gave me a goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. ³⁰But when this, your son, came, who has devoured your living with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’

³¹“He said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. ³²But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’”

¹He also said to his disciples, “There was a certain rich man who had a manager. An accusation was made to him that this man was wasting his possessions. ²He called him, and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’

³“The manager said within himself, ‘What will I do, seeing that my lord is taking away the management position from me? I don’t have strength to dig. I am ashamed to beg. ⁴I know what I will do, so that when I am removed from management, they may receive me into their houses.’ ⁵Calling each one of his lord’s debtors to him, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe to my lord?’ ⁶He said, ‘A hundred batos[1] of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ ⁷Then said he to another, ‘How much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred cors[2] of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’

⁸“His lord commended the dishonest manager because he had done wisely, for the children of this world are, in their own generation, wiser than the children of the light. ⁹I tell you, make for yourselves friends by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when you fail, they may receive you into the eternal tents. ¹⁰He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much. He who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. ¹¹If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? ¹²If you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? ¹³No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. You aren’t able to serve God and mammon[3]. ^h ”

[1]16:6 100 batos is about 395 litres, 104 U. S. gallons, or 87 imperial gallons.

[2]16:7  100 cors = about 3,910 litres or 600 bushels.

[3]16:13 “Mammon” refers to riches or a false god of wealth.

Bible References taken from:
The World English Bible (WEB) is a Public Domain (no copyright) Modern English translation of the Holy Bible, based on the American Standard Version of the Holy Bible first published in 1901, the Biblia Hebraica Stutgartensa Old Testament, and the Greek Majority Text New Testament.