Luke 14:16-20 -- On Excuses

"Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many:
And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready.
And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.
And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused.
And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come."
Luke 14:16-20


This is an interesting parable, symbolic of the gospel and kingdom of God. On the surface the excuses seem plausible, but they all clearly indicate that the guests value something more than their host. They are going to do important things, but this is a dinner they knew about well ahead of time--surely, they could have made the time to attend, and still could if they wanted to, but it isn't important to them, and so they engage in other priorities, effectively snubbing their host.

I think that if God stood in front of us and invited us to heaven, we would all say yes, we'll be there--but we don't always connect that to our actual lives and realize that he has already invited us, sent us reminders, and lighted the way. The parable is about the choices that we make every day about whether to attend that dinner that we have already committed to.

Today, let's work on letting go of the excuses that we make to the Lord, and instead make every effort to get to that dinner. Every other priority pales in comparison to our invitation from God.