εἶπον

But one after another they all began to make excuses. The first one said, ‘I have bought a field, and I need to go see it. Please excuse me.’

Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out. Please excuse me.’

Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, so I cannot come.’

The servant returned and reported all this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the city, and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’

‘Sir,’ the servant replied, ‘what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’

So the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.

Now large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and He turned and said to them,

Then Jesus told them this parable:

Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons.

The younger son said to him, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

The son declared, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

‘Your brother has returned,’ he said, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has him back safe and sound.’

But he answered his father, ‘Look, all these years I have served you and never disobeyed a commandment of yours. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.

‘Son, you are always with me,’ the father said, ‘and all that is mine is yours.

Jesus also said to His disciples, “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions.

So he called him in to ask, ‘What is this I hear about you? Turn in an account of your management, for you cannot be manager any longer.’

The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, now that my master is taking away my position? I am too weak to dig and too ashamed to beg.

And he called in each one of his master’s debtors. ‘How much do you owe my master?’ he asked the first.

‘A hundred measures of olive oil,’ he answered. ‘Take your bill,’ said the manager, ‘sit down quickly, and write fifty.’

Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ ‘A hundred measures of wheat,’ he replied. ‘Take your bill and write eighty,’ he told him.

So He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is prized among men is detestable before God.

So he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. For I am in agony in this fire.’

But Abraham answered, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things. But now he is comforted here, while you are in agony.

‘Then I beg you, father,’ he said, ‘send Lazarus to my father’s house,

‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone is sent to them from the dead, they will repent.’

Then Abraham said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’”

Jesus said to His disciples, “It is inevitable that stumbling blocks will come, but woe to the one through whom they come!

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”

And the Lord answered, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.

When Jesus saw them, He said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they were on their way, they were cleansed.

“Were not all ten cleansed?” Jesus asked. “Where then are the other nine?

Then Jesus said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well!”

When asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God will not come with observable signs.

Then He said to the disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it.

“Where, Lord?” they asked. Jesus answered, “Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.”

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray at all times and not lose heart:

For a while he refused, but later he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect men,

And the Lord said, “Listen to the words of the unjust judge.

To some who trusted in their own righteousness and viewed others with contempt, He also told this parable:

“Why do you call Me good?” Jesus replied. “No one is good except God alone.

“All these I have kept from my youth,” he said.

On hearing this, Jesus told him, “You still lack one thing: Sell everything you own and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”

Seeing the man’s sadness, Jesus said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!

Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?”

But Jesus said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”

“Look,” said Peter, “we have left all we had to follow You.”