₁One Sabbath Jesus went to eat a meal at the home of one of the leading Pharisees; and people were watching Jesus closely.

₇Jesus noticed how some of the guests were choosing the best places, so he told this parable to all of them: ₈“When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place. It could happen that someone more important than you has been invited, ₉and your host, who invited both of you, would have to come and say to you, ‘Let him have this place.’ Then you would be embarrassed and have to sit in the lowest place. ₁₀Instead, when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that your host will come to you and say, ‘Come on up, my friend, to a better place.’ This will bring you honour in the presence of all the other guests. ₁₁For all those who make themselves great will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be made great.”

₁₂Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbours — for they will invite you back, and in this way you will be paid for what you did. ₁₃When you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind; ₁₄and you will be blessed, because they are not able to pay you back. God will repay you on the day the good people rise from death.”