Living Without Excuses
Pastor Douglas Scalise, Brewster Baptist Church
Luke 14:15-24
In Luke 14, Jesus is eating a meal at the house of a leader of the Pharisees. He is being watched closely in a testing way by those who have not embraced him or his teaching but who are self-righteous and look down on other people who don’t have as much materially as they do. Jesus responds with a parable.
[powerpress] Listen to Luke 14:15-24, “One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him,
“Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”
Then Jesus said to him, “Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my regrets.’ Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets.’ Another said, ‘I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.’ So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’
And the slave said, ‘Sir, what you have ordered has been done, and there is still room.’ Then the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled.
For I tell you all, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.”
I want to share with you this morning about Living Without Excuses. Excuses can be funny. (In worship we watched a scene from the film, The Blues Brothers in which Jake Blues offers a host of excuses to his ex-fiancee about why he didn’t show up for their wedding including that “there was an earthquake, a terrible flood, locusts, it wasn’t my fault I swear to God!”)
Excuses are often interesting. Zig Ziglar in his book, Something Else to Smile About, shares the story of a man who went next door to borrow his neighbor’s lawnmower. The neighbor explained that he couldn’t let him use the mower because all the flights had been canceled from New York to Los Angeles. The man asked him what canceled flights from New York to LA had to do with borrowing his lawnmower. “It doesn’t have anything to do with it, but if I don’t want you to use my lawnmower, one excuse is as good as another.”
Excuses have advanced along with technology so we’ve gone from the dog ate my homework to my computer crashed or the network is down.
People will say amazing things to excuse their behavior. A woman was working one night in a Honeybaked Ham store. The store was equipped with security cameras, and she was watching the small, black-and-white monitors when she saw a woman come in the store, walk down the accessibility ramp, and go between two shelves. To the clerk’s amazement, the woman grabbed a ham off the shelf and stuffed it up her dress. With the ham wedged between her thighs, the woman waddled toward the door. The clerk was stunned and wondered what she should do. Should she yell out? Follow the woman?
Just then the ham dropped out from between the woman’s legs. It hit the metal ramp with a loud bang, and then rolled down it to the bottom. The shoplifter didn’t miss a beat. She quickly turned her head and yelled out, “Who threw that ham at me? Who threw that ham at me?” Then she ran away.
Someone wrote about the excuses for not going to sporting events anymore. Listen to hear if any of these excuses or similar ones might also keep us, or someone we know from attending worship. “They always ask me for money, the people I sat with weren’t very friendly, the seats were too hard, the coach never asked my advice, the referee made some bad calls, some people cared more about their looks than the game, some games went into overtime and I was late getting home, the band played songs I didn’t know, too many games didn’t fit into my schedule, my parents took me to too many games when I was growing up, I just read a book on sports and I know more than the coaches, I don’t take my kids to any games either so that they can make their own choices about what sport they like best.”[1]
D.L. Moody said, “Excuses are the cradle…that Satan rocks men off to sleep in.” Coming up with excuses is easy; living as a disciple of Jesus without excuses requires effort, focus, and compassion. Jesus says a man gives a banquet and invites many. The custom of the day was an invitation in advance and a follow-up at the time of the meal to those who had accepted the first. However, between the first and second invitation the circumstances of the guests have changed. The validity of their excuses is open to interpretation. The first two felt economic pressures and the third was recently married. They may have felt legitimate to the excuse-makers, but the Master isn’t impressed, he’s mad.
The point is that God’s invitation to us has priority not just over the worst choices we could make but also our best agendas. Those who are invited to the Lord’s banquet attend, not because they have nothing else to do, but because the banquet is the best option among a number of attractive alternatives. John Piper writes in A Hunger for God,
“The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie.
It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not the X-rated video, but the prime-time dribble of triviality we drink in every night. For all the ill that Satan can do, when God describes what keeps us from the banquet table of his love, it is a piece of land, a yoke of oxen, and a wife (Luke 14:18-20). The greatest adversary of love to God is not his enemies but his gifts. And the most deadly appetites are not the poison of evil, but the simple pleasures of earth. For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable, and almost incurable.
Remember in Week One of this series Jesus said some people hear the Word of God, and a desire for God is awakened in their hearts. But then “as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life” (Luke 8:14). Jesus said, “The pleasures of this life” and “the desires for other things” these are not evil in themselves. These are not vices. These are gifts of God. John Piper says, “they are your basic meat and potatoes and coffee and gardening and reading and decorating and traveling and investing and TV-watching and Internet-surfing and shopping and exercising and collecting and talking. And all of them can become deadly substitutes for God.”[2]
Jesus’ listeners would not have been surprised by the parable up to the point of inviting people to replace the original guests. Folks could relate to planning a dinner party, preparing, inviting, only to have guests not show. The twist is in who is invited next. Rather than inviting well to do folks from the same social and economic circle, the host turns to the streets and invites the poor, the maimed, the blind, and the lame and finally because there is still room, homeless and landless people outside the city gates on public roads who were so surprised by the unexpected invitation that they had to be urged to accept it because they were usually not welcomed.
The final guest list at the banquet must have been a very surprising one to the fellow whose pious comment, “Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God,” in the comfortable surroundings of the Pharisee’s home launched the parable, The exclamation is a way of saying, “Blessed is the person who will share in the first resurrection.” Jesus seems to sense the words are spoken perhaps with the assurance that of course, “And I’m going to be one of them.” However, it is one thing to be invited to the party; it is another to truly accept the invitation and to step up to the spiritual life to which Jesus invites us.
The parable invites us to consider where we are in the story. Are we one of the initial people receiving an invitation who allow material possessions to hinder them from coming to the banquet? Are we one of the later persons who can’t believe our good fortune at being invited? Are we one of the slaves out looking for folks to bring in to fill the Master’s house and enjoy a wonderful feast? Are we a combination?
How might we as slaves of Jesus obey the command of verse 23, ‘Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled.” Without kidnapping people, we want to be open to the leading and prompting of the Holy Spirit as we interact with people and we want to be inviting people who are sharing with others the opportunity to “come to the banquet.”
In verse 24, the parable concludes, “For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.” This tells us there will be surprises at the final time of Judgment, there will be those who were invited who didn’t “RSVP.” The host is generous but wants an affirmative response from all who were invited to come. The parable should serve as a warning to make sure we have our priorities in order, so we aren’t left with just a bunch of excuses.
This parable teaches us about the kingdom of God that many are invited but not all respond. There will come a time when it is too late to accept the invitation. There is joy, blessing, and fellowship for all who accept no matter who they are or what their condition or status. What can we do individually and as a church to fill our Master’s house? How can you help? Who could you invite or bring with you to worship, an event, or a group? One thing might be to identify and begin praying for 1-3 individuals they might invite to some BBC event, like the Blackwood Brothers Gospel concert this Saturday night at 7:00 p.m.
“Excuses are deadly things. They poison the life of the Christian because they block the path to confession and forgiveness and rob faith of its vitality. The most dangerous excuses are those with which we fool ourselves. One of the unrecognized characteristics of excuses is that they accuse as well as excuse because they reveal our true priorities. The excuses we offer reveal the activities and commitments we hold to be of greater importance. Only those who dare to put aside their excuses can ever know the joy of confession, the peace of forgiveness, or the thrill of living by faith. The Lord is giving a party, and we are all invited!”[3]
The Good news for us is, “And still there is room.”
Homework Assignment
At home, take a piece of paper, cut it into a circle and write on one side,
“Living Without Excuses.”
Then on the other side write the letters “TUIT.”
This important and valuable piece of paper is “a round tuit.”
Often when we make excuses we say, “I’ll do that when I get around to it.”
So once you make yourself “a round tuit” that you can carry with you, you will be in better shape to live without making excuses.
[1] Faith, Prayer, & Tract League, Grand Rapids, MI.
[2] John Piper, A Hunger for God, (Crossway, 1997), p. 14-15.
[3] R. Alan Culpepper, The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 9, Luke/John, p. 291.