Lucas 14

ARC · Chapter 14/24

1Aconteceu n'um sabbado que, entrando elle em casa de um dos principaes dos phariseos para comer pão, elles o estavam espiando.

2E eis que estava ali adiante d'elle um certo homem hydropico.

3E, Jesus, tomando a palavra, fallou aos doutores da lei, e aos phariseos, dizendo: É licito curar no sabbado?

4Elles, porém, calaram-se. E, tomando-o, elle o curou e despediu.

5E, respondendo-lhes, disse: Qual será de vós o que, caindo-lhe n'um poço, em dia de sabbado, o jumento ou o boi, o não tire logo?

6E nada lhe podiam replicar a estas coisas.

7E disse aos convidados uma parabola, reparando como escolhiam os primeiros assentos, dizendo-lhes:

8Quando por alguem fôres convidado ás bodas, não te assentes no primeiro logar, não aconteça que esteja convidado outro mais digno do que tu;

9E, vindo o que te convidou a ti e a elle, te diga: Dá o logar e este; e então, com vergonha, tenhas de tomar o derradeiro logar.

10Mas, quando fores convidado, vae, e assenta-te no derradeiro logar, para que, quando vier o que te convidou, te diga: Amigo, sobe mais para cima. Então terás honra diante dos que estiverem comtigo á mesa.

11Porque qualquer que a si mesmo se exaltar será humilhado, e aquelle que a si mesmo se humilhar será exaltado.

12E dizia tambem ao que o tinha convidado: Quando deres um jantar, ou uma ceia, não chames os teus amigos, nem os teus irmãos, nem os teus parentes, nem visinhos ricos, para que não succeda que tambem elles te tornem a convidar, e te seja isso recompensado.

13Mas, quando fizeres convite, chama os pobres, aleijados, mancos e cegos,

14E serás bemaventurado; porquanto não teem com que t'o recompensar; porque recompensado te será na resurreição dos justos.

15E, ouvindo isto um dos que estavam com elle á mesa, disse-lhe: Bemaventurado aquelle que comer pão no reino de Deus.

16Porém elle lhe disse: Um certo homem fez uma grande ceia, e convidou a muitos.

17E á hora da ceia mandou o seu servo a dizer aos convidados: Vinde, que já tudo está preparado.

18E todos á uma começaram a escusar-se. Disse-lhe o primeiro: Comprei um campo, e importa ir vêl-o: rogo-te que me hajas por escusado.

19E outro disse: Comprei cinco juntas de bois, e vou a experimental-os: rogo-te que me hajas por escusado.

20E outro disse: Casei, e portanto não posso ir.

21E, voltando aquelle servo, annunciou estas coisas ao seu senhor. Então o pae de familia, indignado, disse ao seu servo: Sae depressa pelas ruas e bairros da cidade, e traze aqui os pobres, e aleijados, e mancos e cegos.

22E disse o servo: Senhor, feito está como mandaste; e ainda ha logar.

23E disse o senhor ao servo: Sae pelos caminhos e vallados, e força-os a entrar para que a minha casa se encha.

24Porque eu vos digo que nenhum d'aquelles varões que foram convidados provará a minha ceia.

25Ora ia com elle uma grande multidão; e, voltando-se, disse-lhe:

26Se alguem vier a mim, e não aborrecer a seu pae, e mãe, e mulher, e filhos, e irmãos, e irmãs, e ainda tambem a sua propria vida, não pode ser meu discipulo.

27E qualquer que não levar a sua cruz, e não vier após mim, não pode ser meu discipulo.

28Pois qual de vós, querendo edificar uma torre, não se assenta primeiro a fazer as contas dos gastos, para ver se tem com que a acabar?

29Para que não aconteça que, depois de haver posto o alicerce, e não a podendo acabar, todos os que a virem comecem a escarnecer d'elle,

30Dizendo: Este homem começou a edificar e não poude acabar.

31Ou qual é o rei que, indo á guerra a pelejar contra outro rei, não se assenta primeiro a consultar se com dez mil pode sair ao encontro do que vem contra elle com vinte mil?

32D'outra maneira, estando o outro ainda longe, manda-lhe embaixadores, e pede condições de paz.

33Assim, pois, qualquer de vós, que não renuncia a tudo quanto tem, não pode ser meu discipulo.

34Bom é o sal; porém, se o sal degenerar, com que se adubará?

35Nem presta para a terra, nem para o monturo; lançam-n'o fóra. Quem tem ouvidos para ouvir, ouça.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Jesus heals a man on the Sabbath at the home of a Pharisee and teaches about humility at the table. He tells the parable of the great banquet, whose original guests refuse to attend, and teaches about the cost of being his disciple.

Explanation

The banquet scene begins with Jesus observing people competing for the seats of honor, and he teaches that true honor comes from God, not self-promotion. The parable of the great banquet criticizes those who reject God's invitation because of material priorities (a field, oxen, a wedding), making room for the marginalized who accept the invitation. The closing teachings on counting the cost of following Jesus (a tower, a war) show that discipleship demands serious commitment, not an impulsive decision. The practical application today is to honestly evaluate whether life's priorities leave room for what God calls most important.

Fun facts

  • Invitations to banquets in ancient Middle Eastern culture were sent in advance and confirmed on the day itself, which is why the refusals in the parable (v.18-20) would have been seen as a serious social insult to the host.
  • The tasteless salt mentioned at the end of the chapter refers to salt from the region of the Dead Sea, which contained mineral impurities and could lose its saltiness, becoming useless — an image well known to Jesus' listeners.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Lucas 14:1Jesus enters the house of a prominent Pharisee on a Sabbath to eat, but the mood is already hostile: the text makes clear they were watching Him closely, looking for grounds for an accusation.
  2. Lucas 14:2A man with dropsy, an abnormal buildup of fluid in the body, is right there in front of Jesus — possibly placed there on purpose as a test, given the watchful atmosphere of the previous verse.
  3. Lucas 14:3Unlike other Sabbath healings, this time Jesus asks before acting, putting the question directly to the lawyers and Pharisees: is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?
  4. Lucas 14:4Their silence shows they have no good counterargument, but they are also unwilling to admit it — Jesus heals the man anyway and sends him away.
  5. Lucas 14:5Jesus again uses the argument of an animal fallen into a well, which anyone would rescue even on the Sabbath — a practical exception everyone already accepted without objection.
  6. Lucas 14:6Once again no one can answer this argument — the second silence in the same scene confirms that Jesus’ reasoning was unanswerable to them.
  7. Lucas 14:7Jesus notices how the guests were choosing the best seats and uses that as a hook for a parable about social behavior.
  8. Lucas 14:8Where each guest sat at a banquet was not random: seats closest to the host marked social status, and competing for a better place than one deserved was a real social scene, not an exaggeration on Jesus’ part. The recommendation to choose the lowest seat avoids precisely the public embarrassment of being demoted in front of everyone.
  9. Lucas 14:9If someone more important arrives later, the host may ask that the seat be given up, and the person ends up having to take the last place, humiliated in front of everyone.
  10. Lucas 14:10Jesus recommends the opposite: take the last place on purpose, so that the host might invite the person to move up — a path to genuine honor, without the risk of public humiliation.
  11. Lucas 14:11The general principle closes the teaching: whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted — the social lesson becomes a broader spiritual principle.
  12. Lucas 14:12Turning to the host himself, Jesus challenges the normal logic of invitations: inviting rich friends and relatives only guarantees social repayment, which would already be the whole reward.
  13. Lucas 14:13The normal custom was to invite those who could return the invitation later — a social exchange between equals. Inviting people who could never pay it back breaks that exchange logic that organized practically all of social life at the time.
  14. Lucas 14:14The alternative proposed brings a different reward: invite those who cannot repay, and the reward comes only at the resurrection of the just, not in an immediate exchange.
  15. Lucas 14:15One of the guests lets slip an idealized comment about eating bread in the kingdom of God — it is this remark that leads into the parable of the great banquet told next.
  16. Lucas 14:16The parable begins with a common scene: a man arranges a great banquet and invites many people.
  17. Lucas 14:17It was customary at the time to invite in advance and then send word once the meal was actually ready — this second notice is what the servant brings to the guests.
  18. Lucas 14:18The first excuse, having bought a field and needing to see it, sounds unconvincing: no one would buy land without seeing it first.
  19. Lucas 14:19The second excuse, testing five yoke of newly bought oxen, has the same problem: it is not something that needed doing at that exact hour.
  20. Lucas 14:20The third excuse, having just gotten married, is the weakest of all — a recent marriage would not have kept someone from attending a feast.
  21. Lucas 14:21Faced with the general refusal, the master of the house, indignant, changes the target of the invitation: he sends for the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame from the city streets — the same group Jesus had already recommended inviting earlier.
  22. Lucas 14:22The servant reports that the order was carried out and there is still room — showing that the marginalized of the city do not even fill the whole reserved space.
  23. Lucas 14:23The master orders him to go even further, to the roads and hedges outside the city, and to urge people to come in — an invitation extended to strangers, who would probably hesitate without some insistence.
  24. Lucas 14:24The conclusion is final: none of the original guests will taste that banquet — their refusal had a lasting consequence, despite the genuine invitation they received.
  25. Lucas 14:25Great crowds accompany Jesus, and He turns to speak directly to them — introducing one of the most demanding passages on the cost of following Him.
  26. Lucas 14:26This way of speaking, contrasting loving and hating in an exaggerated way, is a common construction in the Hebrew and Aramaic of the time to mean loving far less by comparison, not literal hatred — the same construction appears elsewhere in biblical texts about preferring one person over another. Jesus is demanding that no family bond, however strong, come before commitment to Him.
  27. Lucas 14:27Repeating a teaching already given before, carrying one’s own cross and following Him appears here as a condition, not a suggestion, for being called a disciple.
  28. Lucas 14:28Building a watchtower, common in vineyards to protect the harvest, required real planning of resources before starting — an unfinished tower would stand there, a visible failure for everyone to see. It is an everyday agricultural scene any listener would recognize at once.
  29. Lucas 14:29The risk of starting to build and failing to finish brings public ridicule as a consequence, from whoever sees the stalled work — an image of shame from lack of planning.
  30. Lucas 14:30The mockery is quoted directly: ‘This man began to build, and was not able to finish’ — a very specific, humiliating public verdict.
  31. Lucas 14:31Calculating whether ten thousand soldiers could withstand an attack of twenty thousand was a practical, common military assessment that any king or general of the time would make before deciding between fighting or negotiating peace. Jesus uses this realistic calculation to speak of the weight of deciding to follow Him without counting the cost first.
  32. Lucas 14:32In the second parable, about the king going to war, if his forces are not enough he sends a delegation to ask for peace terms while the other king is still far away — a strategic decision made in time, before it is too late.
  33. Lucas 14:33The conclusion joins both parables: giving up everything one has is presented as a necessary condition for being a disciple, a very demanding standard after these two examples of counting the cost beforehand.
  34. Lucas 14:34Salt in that era, mixed with minerals, could lose its saltiness while the useless residue remained — hence Jesus’ question about how to restore something that has already lost its purpose.
  35. Lucas 14:35That useless salt is fit neither for the soil nor for fertilizer, so it is simply thrown out — and Jesus closes with the same call to genuine attention used at the end of the parable of the sower.

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