Excuses, Excuses, Excuses: Modern Insights from an Ancient Parable
The Parable of the Great Banquet, recorded in Luke 14:15-24, tells the story of a wealthy Master who invites many to a great banquet he had prepared for them. One by one, the invited guests decline the invitation, each giving a different excuse. The three excuses specified in verses 18 to 20 are striking in their universality; they are just as common and relevant today as they were two thousand years ago. People in every culture, every continent, and every era in history have been making the same excuses.
The Master in the story represents God, and the banquet represents His invitation to all of humankind to enter into fellowship with Him. The dining table had deep significance in the ancient Near East. One only sat down to share a meal with those whom one considered friends. That God, the Master and Creator of the entire universe, would invite all people to His banquet table is an astounding thing, not to be taken lightly. That people would reject this invitation is, in a way, even more astounding.
Three Excuses
The first excuse we read about is found in Luke 14:18. "I have bought a field and must go and see to it." The man who gave this excuse was more concerned about his property than about his relationship with the Master. In our modern context, property would include the houses or apartments we own or manage. Owning or managing a home is a major responsibility that can take up a surprising amount of time. The work that needs to be done to maintain a home is seemingly never-ending, and so are the possible home improvement projects people can work on.
The Bible commends good stewardship and the orderly management of our households (1 Cor. 4:2; Col. 3:23; 1 Tim. 3:5). But if we are not careful, we can easily slip over the faint line between good stewardship and idolatry of homes and property. If our obsession with a clean, orderly home, a well-manicured yard, or with HGTV-inspired home improvement projects is greater than our desire to be in close fellowship with God, then we are guilty of idolatry. If we spend more time, money, and mental energy on decorating and upgrading our homes than on building our relationship with God, we are rejecting God's invitation of intimacy.
“As with the first excuse, there is a fine line between God-denying busyness and God-honoring diligence.”
The second excuse is found in verse 19: "I have bought five yoke of oxen and am going to try them out." This excuse centers around our work and livelihoods. Perhaps the most common reason people give for neglecting their relationship with God is busyness. Busyness is truly one of the most effective weapons of the enemy against God's people.
As with the first excuse, there is a fine line between God-denying busyness and God-honoring diligence. The Bible commends diligence and hard work as a godly virtue (Ecc. 9:10; Col. 3:23; 2 Tess. 3:10-12). But if taken too far, it can easily lead to worldly busyness, especially in modern culture. What we give our time to shows what we value. If we give God the leftovers of our time, it shows that we value God behind everything else in life. When God is the first thing we cut out when we become busy, we reject God's invitation into deeper fellowship with Him.
“Giving God anything less than first place in our lives is idolatry.”
The third excuse of the passage is in verse 20. The invitee says, "I just got married, and so I cannot come." This last excuse centers around relationships, the most important of which is marriage. As with the other two excuses, the third excuse is based on something fundamentally good. Human beings were created for relationship, both vertical (Ex. 6:7; 20:2-3) and horizontal (Gen. 2:18, 24; 1 Cor. 12:12-26). God also places high value on marriage as a holy symbol of Christ's relationship with the Church (Eph. 5:25-33; Rev. 21:9). But nothing, not even marriage, is to be given greater priority than our relationship with God. Giving God anything less than first place in our lives is idolatry.
Conclusion
The three excuses in the Parable of the Great Banquet revolve around property, work, and relationships. These excuses have been around since civilization came into existence. There may be a tendency to think that these excuses are more prevalent in fast-paced urban settings than in rural ones, but that would miss out on the fact that the parable itself takes place in a rural setting. What the parable reveals is that our excuses are not a result of our external circumstances but of the condition of our hearts. We always make time for the things that are important to us. If we are not making time to be in fellowship with God, that is merely a symptom of a deeper dysfunction of our hearts.
The best way to be free of these excuses is to throw ourselves at the mercy of Christ, pray for a radical change of heart, and beg for open eyes to see the joy and satisfaction of the banquet God offers to us. As C.S. Lewis famously wrote, "We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea." Only by the grace of God can our eyes be opened to see the bounty that is laid before us in His presence. Let us deny the junk food of the world and partake of the glorious feast found only in the fellowship of God.