But Jesus said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many guests.

They will say, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish!’

“Now his older son was in the field. As he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing.

Then the manager said to himself, ‘What should I do, since my master is taking my position away from me? I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m too ashamed to beg.

The man replied, ‘A hundred measures of olive oil.’ The manager said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and write fifty.’

Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ The second man replied, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ The manager said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’

But Jesus said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in men’s eyes, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly prized among men is utterly detestable in God’s sight.

Watch yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him.

So you too, when you have done everything you were commanded to do, should say, ‘We are slaves undeserving of special praise; we have only done what was our duty.’”

Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in the days of the Son of Man.

Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot, people were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building;

For a while he refused, but later on he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor have regard for people,

And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unrighteous judge says!

The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: extortionists, unrighteous people, adulterers – or even like this tax collector.

Now people were even bringing their babies to him for him to touch. But when the disciples saw it, they began to scold those who brought them.

But when the man heard this he became very sad, for he was extremely wealthy.

Those who heard this said, “Then who can be saved?”

who will not receive many times more in this age – and in the age to come, eternal life.”

But the twelve understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what Jesus meant.

While the people were listening to these things, Jesus proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately.