Excuses Will Lead To Exclusion

In Luke 14:1, we find Jesus having a meal in the house of one of the chief Pharisees. One of the invited guests who was eating with Him exclaimed: “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God” (Luke 14:15).

The Lord’s discourse of the parable of the great supper followed. In this parable, Jesus speaks of a great supper prepared by a man who then invited many folks to come. One after the other made excuses involving land, oxen and a wife (Luke 14:18-20). The master of the house became angry, and sent his servants out to invite others until the house was full (Luke 14:16-23). The master then said: “….none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper” (Luke 14:24).

One of the applications of this parable, is that the Jews who were first “invited,” would not partake of the blessings of  the kingdom (Luke 14:15), because of their stubborn refusal to understand that Jesus was the promised Messiah. They had been invited to partake of the blessings of the new covenant through the Word of God preached by Moses and the prophets (Luke 24:44). They rejected this teaching and thus would miss the most important supper of all (cf. Acts 13:44-46).

Today, there are members of the Lord’s church who are rejecting the Lord’s invitation to be spiritually blessed. God has provided them many opportunities to serve Him, but too many of them are standing on the sidelines making all kinds of excuses why they cannot serve. They choose to not be involved in the Lord’s work, and thus do not experience any spiritual growth.

This parable tells us what to do when with members of the Lord’s church who ought to know the nature and significance of God’s blessings, but do not take advantage of them. We should invite and implore them to “come to the feast.” However, if they won’t come because of sundry excuses, let’s not beg them. Instead, let’s invite others (Luke 14:23). But let’s make those members who did not want to “come to the feast” aware of the stern implication of the Lord’s last statement in the parable (Luke 14:24).

Beloved, excuses will lead to exclusion.

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets