The Parable of the Great Banquet

¹² He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give ^(A)a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers^[a] or your relatives or rich neighbors, ^(B)lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. ¹³ But when you give a feast, ^(C)invite ^(D)the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴ and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid ^(E)at ^(F)the resurrection of the just.”

¹⁵ When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, ^(G)“Blessed is everyone who will ^(H)eat bread in the kingdom of God!” ¹⁶ But he said to him, ^(I)“A man once ^(J)gave a great banquet and invited many. ¹⁷ And at the time for the banquet he ^(K)sent his servant^[b] to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ ¹⁸ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ ¹⁹ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ ²⁰ And another said, ^(L)‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ ²¹ So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in ^(M)the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ ²² And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ ²³ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. ²⁴ For I tell you,^{[c] (N)}none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’”

⁴ As you come to him, a living stone ^(A)rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, ^5 (B)you yourselves like living stones are being built up as ^(C)a spiritual house, to be ^(D)a holy priesthood, ^(E)to offer spiritual sacrifices ^(F)acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶ For it stands in Scripture:

⁷ So the honor is for you who ^(I)believe, but for those who ^(J)do not believe,

⁸ and

They stumble because they disobey the word, ^(M)as they were destined to do.

⁹ But you are ^(N)a chosen race, ^(O)a royal ^(P)priesthood, ^(Q)a holy nation, ^(R)a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you ^(S)out of darkness into ^(T)his marvelous light. ^10 (U)Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.