The Rewards Of Modesty And Unsel
Once Jesus went into the house of a leading Pharisee to dine. When he
saw how the guests chose the best places, he gave them this advice:
"When any one invites you to a marriage feast, do not sit down in the
best place, for perhaps the host has invited some one of higher rank
than yourself. Then the host will come to you and say, 'Make room for
this man,' and with shame you will take the lowest place.
"In
tead, when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so
that when your host comes he may say to you, 'Friend, come up higher.'
Then you will be honored in the sight of all your fellow guests. For
every one who puts himself forward will be humbled, but he who does not
put himself forward will be honored."
Then Jesus said to his host, "When you give a dinner or a supper, do not
invite your friends or brothers or relatives or rich neighbors, for they
will invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast,
invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. Then you will be
blessed. For they have no way of repaying you, and you will be rewarded
when the upright rise from the dead."
Peter said to him, "But we have left everything and have followed you."
Jesus answered, "I tell you, there is no one who has left home or
brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake
and for the good cause, who does not receive a hundredfold as much at
this present time: houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and
lands, along with persecution, and in the time to come eternal life. But
many who are first now will be last, and the last will be first."