Shallow Excuses for
Rejecting God’s Blessing
Luke 14:15-24
©Copyright
September 12, 2010 by Rev. Bruce Goettsche SERIES: Walking with Jesus
Many
good times involve food. We can all remember special family times around the
table at Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter. We may remember that first dinner
out with a special someone. In my home growing up supper time was always the
time we connected as a family. We continued that practice in our own home and
tried to guard supper time as “our time”. We make lots of friends in life but
the ones that seem to be the most special are the ones with whom we have shared
meals.
The
Bible has many accounts of Jesus at a meal. We remember the Last Supper; there
was also the meal where Mary anointed Jesus with expensive perfume. The story
of Mary and Martha was set in the context of a meal. Jesus was at a meal when
He performed some of His miracles. One of His miracles actually involved a meal
in the feeding of the 5000.
In Luke
14:15-24 the context is again a meal. The passage is tied to the previous
passage so Jesus is still at the home of a Prominent Pharisee. Jesus had just
spoken about the importance of inviting the poor, the crippled, the lame, and
the blind to a meal. That created an uncomfortable situation and one of the men
tried to perhaps change the subject (which is what we often do when under
conviction).
When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus,
“Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”
Isn’t
it interesting that Heaven is often pictured as a place where we will eat with
God? It denotes intimacy in relationship. To eat with Jesus at the Great
Banquet was to be known as a friend of God.
In
response to these words Jesus tells a parable. The parable is not about showing
courtesy to others. Jesus is teaching us valuable spiritual truth.
An Invitation
16
Jesus
replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests.
In the gospel of Matthew the account
is anchored to a wedding reception. Today a family will send out wedding
invitations to carefully chosen people and request an RSVP weeks in advance of the
reception so that the family can prepare for (and pay for) the right number of
people. You need to know how much food to buy, how many tables you will need to
decorate, how many hotel rooms to reserve for out of town guests and you need
to prepare the church for the crowd that is coming.
Verse 16 implies that invitations were
sent out in advance for the banquet being prepare. Invitations were sent,
responses were received.
The
Excuses
Now the story takes a twist.
17 At the time of the
banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for
everything is now ready.18 “But they all alike began to make
excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it.
Please excuse me.’
19 “Another said, ‘I
have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please
excuse me.’
20 “Still another said,
‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’
The people who said they would come to
the banquet now give a bunch of excuses when it is actually time to attend the
banquet. You probably have had this experience. You made plans for certain
people to attend an event (it may have been a birthday party, a wedding, or
even a family get-together. You made
preparations (sometimes costing a good deal of money) and then people don’t
show up. If you ask them why they did not attend, you will get any number of
excuses. Usually the excuses are pretty poor.
Listen to the excuses this man
received,
What is the point of the story? It
seems clear that the people who received the invitation represented the Jews.
God chose Israel (invited them) to be His special people. God promised them a
Redeemer and a new life as the children of God. The people said they wanted to
be part of God’s family. However, when that Redeemer came on the scene they all
made excuses for why they would not follow Christ.
The same thing continues to happen.
There are many who declare their desire to follow Christ at the time of
conversion, when they are received as members of a church, or when they are
talking to fellow church members. But, when it comes to actually following
Christ . . . when action needs to be taken. . .you get excuses
There are a host of popular excuses
for why we can’t read the Bible, can’t pray, can’t worship with the believers,
can’t share our faith, can’t conduct our business in a Christian fashion or why
we can’t pursue the life of holiness:
All of these are shallow excuses. We
have time to eat meals, play games, visit with friends, and watch television.
We have the time. We make time for things that truly matter to us. So
apparently, following Christ is simply not important enough to us. Why?
Think about it. When someone gives you
an excuse for something you asked them to do or attend, are you fooled? No. You
know that the truth is simply that other things were more important and
desirable to that person than we are. When we make excuses for why we don’t practically
and fully follow the Lord, He is not fooled either. Save your breath God knows
the truth: you value others things more than Him.
The
Response
21 “The servant came
back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry
and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the
town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’
22 “ ‘Sir,’ the servant
said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’
23 “Then the master told
his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so
that my house will be full. 24 I tell you, not one of those men who
were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’ ”
When
the servant (servants in Matthew) returns without the guests the master is
angry and immediately sent the servant back out to bring in the common folk
from off the streets. Don’t misunderstand the passage. It is not teaching that God
was surprised by the excuses of men and had to go to His “Plan B”. Giving the
gospel to the Gentiles was not a consolation prize. Jesus is simply saying the
reason He spent so much time with sinners and tax-collectors was because the “religious
people” had rejected Him!
The
positive message is this: God will not be discouraged by the refusal of a few
people to follow Him. He will continue to offer the message of forgiveness, new
life, and an intimate relationship even to those we might consider unworthy. If
you refuse His invitation, if you continue to make excuses for why you cannot
(and let’s be honest, you really mean “will not”) serve and follow Christ, it
will be your loss and not His. The Banquet Hall of Heaven will be filled with
those who have been transformed by God’s grace. The question is whether you
will be part of the celebration.
Applications
Let me give you three
applications of this text. First, we see that God Invites Us to His Banquet
in Heaven. In other words, God has invited everyone to be part of an
intimate and eternal relationship with Him. Regardless of who you are, He has
extended to you and invitation. God has
made great provision for our salvation. Everything we need for redemption has been
provided for us by God’s grace
· A payment for sin in
the Sacrifice of Christ
· The power for holy
living in the Holy Spirit
· An enduring
Intercessor and Advocate in Christ
· A clear set of instructions
found in Scripture
This
Gospel is graciously offered to everyone. Jesus has paid the price for the
forgiveness of our rebellion. He has demonstrated His love. He offers His
wisdom, guidance and strength for life. He offers to repair the damage of our
sin stained lives. It is an astounding opportunity. It is yours for the taking.
Many will Refuse the Invitation in One Sense
or Another,
Some people will refuse the invitation outright. They will, if you will,
respond “No” on the RSVP card. They do not want to talk about faith, they don’t
want to hear about sin and judgment, and they just want you to go away.
There will
be others who mark “yes” on their RSVP, but don’t follow through. These people will
talk about faith, make professions of faith, sing songs of faith, and may even
call themselves Christians. However, when it comes down to actually following Christ in the everyday
decisions of life. . . they give one excuse after another.
J.C.
Ryle writes,
It is not ignorance
of religion that ruins most men’s souls. It is an unwillingness to act on the
knowledge. It is not open rebellion against God that fills hell. It is
excessive attention to things which in themselves are lawful. – It is not
avowed dislike to the Gospel which is so much to be feared. It is that
procrastinating, excuse-making spirit, which is always read with a reason why
Christ cannot be served to-day.
(Expository Thoughts on the Gospel, Volume 2 p. 162)
Over
the past several weeks we have addressed this theme several times because it
has been in the text repeatedly. This leads me to conclude that this is an
issue that concerns the Lord. I can see why. I believe the greatest problem in
the church today is apathy. There is no fire in the soul of people for the
glory of God in America. We are much more passionate about our sports team or
our favorite reality television show that we are about the Lord Jesus Christ!
I’m afraid that there will be many people who will end up in Hell who if you
asked them why they did not respond to God’s invitation of grace will simply
say, “I just never really gave it a thought. I was busy doing other things.”
Jesus
is trying to get our attention. He is calling us to devoted discipleship. He calls us to love Him with the kind of
passion that He has for us. He wants us to get off the fence and decide whether
we are going to follow Him or whether we are going to continue to wander after
one thing after another. It is time for us to take a hard look at our lives as
ask: “Is Christ truly the passion of my life?” if you aren’t sure of the
answer, look at your calendar, your check book, and ask yourself, “What
occupies the focus of my mind?” If Christ is not the passion of your life, then
you are guilty of idolatry. Something else has your heart and you had better
correct that situation before it is too late.
You can
continue to push this decision aside. You can say “Someday you will get
serious”. This is not only a risky move but a foolish one….you are missing out
on the riches God wants to give us.
Our Task Is To Proclaim The Message
Forcefully. The
man told his servants to compel people from off of the streets to come to the
meal. Jesus is not telling us that we must force people to come to church, read
their Bibles, and live by God’s standard. This isn’t a call to go back to the
time of the Crusades. He is calling us to be passionate and determined in our
evangelism.
If
someone was in the water drowning, we wouldn’t simply demonstrate the swimming
stroke and hope that people figured out what we were doing. We wouldn’t just
stand on the boat or the shore and wring our hands while we reflected about how
nice it would be if the person knew how to swim and could be kept from
drowning. That would be absurd. We would throw the person a life preserver, a
rope, or something else. We would cry for help. If you had the training, you
might even swim out to the person to rescue them.
Likewise,
when it comes to gospel and how we relate to people who are not followers of
Christ, it does no good to simply say, “I testify to my faith by the way I
live.” The Bible tells us that faith comes by hearing and hearing comes from
the Word of God. It also doesn’t do any good to sit around and merely discuss
the dire state of people who have not responded to the invitation of God’s
love. What is needed is for us to get
involved and to make every effort to communicate the truth to people who do not
know that Jesus has died for them and wants to set them free from the futility
of life.
Understand,
Heaven is not some work camp or prison; it is likened to a banquet. Heaven will
be a celebration of the grandest sort. We won’t need to get drunk or eat
ourselves sick in order to have a good time. The joy of this banquet will come
from being with Jesus. One author writes,
“The metaphor of
feasting, as distinct from merely eating a meal assures us that no true
potential appetite, desire, or longing given us by God will prove to have been
a deception, but all will be granted their richest and most sublime
fulfillment.” The “great banquet” is a lavish, sumptuous image of the kingdom
of Heaven that will be exceeded by its reality—joyous satisfaction! And, of
course, the ultimate convener and host will be Christ himself.[1]
There
is a grand banquet coming. It will be the banquet of all banquets. The main
attraction of the banquet is not the food . . . it is the host. You are
invited! God wants you to be part of His family and part of the celebration.
The invitation has been extended and now it is time to begin heading toward His
home. You can make all kinds of excuses. You can convince yourself that you are
a true believer even though you do not follow Him. But if you do, you will miss
the banquet. The other alternative is to drop everything and run with
single-minded determination to follow fully. Those who choose this option, will
eat at His table, they will know a blessing for all eternity, and they will
never be hungry again.
©Copyright
September 12, 2010 by Rev. Bruce Goettsche SERIES: Walking with Jesus