Excuses

             When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”

             Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’

            “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.’

            “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’

            “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’

            “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.’

            “‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’

            “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.  I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’” (Luke 14:15-24)

 

            In today’s passage, Jesus doesn’t mention the kingdom of God specifically, but He responds to someone who does in connection with a great feast. The comparison is obvious. The guests invited to the feast all make excuses. One just bought a field, another bought five yoke of oxen, and a third just got married. Keep in mind that a major banquet would not have been a flash mob sort of thing in which folks suddenly showed up with platters of food as if from nowhere. It wouldn’t have been a case of, “Hey, my servants stupidly cooked enough food to feed a hundred people for four days. Care to stop by?” It would have been planned for as long as a year.

          Remember, too, that in that culture (as in ours), such a snubbing would have been a grave insult. Another cultural norm of the time was that those who were poor, disabled, or diseased in some way weren’t welcome. In some cases, this had to do with fears of contagion and sanitation, but just as we have lists of people who aren’t welcome for one reason or another, they had their lists.

          When those who had been invited all found last-minute excuses to snub the host, he sent his servants out to find those who had not been invited but would be likely to welcome the invitation with gratitude. And in the story, that took some doing because it wasn’t just the three who waited until the last minute to decline. It’s as if the host's invited people had decided to cancel him.

          Some like to use passages like this to attack “religious” people, and in some ways, they’re right. Once again, they say, the riffraff are the ones who end up at the table, not the respectable “faithful.” I don’t think that’s as big a point as the excuses. We’re experts at excusing ourselves.

          We can’t all believe that way.

          I’m no good at __________.

          I’m scared.

          I’m busy.

          I don’t like those hypocrites.

          It costs too much.

          I don’t have a passport.

          I’m afraid of spiders.

          Who will take care of my … kids, dogs, garden…?

          I’m too poor…rich…uneducated… educated …male …female …black… white…brown…old…young…conservative…liberal… too “other” in some way.

          They won’t like me.

          I’ll embarrass God and myself.

          Add to the list! Go ahead. When God says, “Go and ______” or “Let’s go talk to that person,” we’re handy with the excuses. Like Moses, I sometimes simply say, “Find someone else” or “No…no…no…no…no…no …no” before I finally mutter, “Oh, OK.” Sometimes, when I give in, I discover I’m glad I did because I get involved in the task. Other times, I grumble and whine the whole time.

          The problem isn’t that these excuse-makers get kicked out by God. The problem is that the excuse maker excludes him/herself and thereby misses out on the benefits that they could have received and also deprives others of the good they might have done.