Title: False Excuses (Luke 14:15-24)
Contents
Those of you who have prepared and held a feast have all experienced it, but the most difficult thing is to accurately predict the guests to come. If this prediction is wrong, the feast will be ruined. These days, feasts are very different from those of the past, as all feasts are held in professionally held places. However, in the old days of feasting, guests had to be served directly at home, so the owner had to slaughter an appropriate amount of livestock and prepare enough food. You need to know how many guests will be coming.
So, in Judea, the master sends his servants to the invited people before the banquet begins to inform them that the banquet is ready and to ask them to attend. Then, the invited people must come to the feast except in special circumstances.
However, in today's text, all the invited guests insulted the owner by refusing to attend instead of zealously attending. And they all rushed to excuse the change of their plans with very feeble pretext.
Some people have a lot of excuses. There are many people who have this excuse, that excuse, this excuse, that excuse. It's not a very good look. We believers should not be Christians who are good at excuses. Instead of being Christians adept at making excuses, we Christians should be adept at obedience.
The first man made the excuse that he couldn't go to the feast because he had to "go see" the field because he had purchased it.
The second man made the excuse that he couldn't go to the banquet because he had bought ten cows to try out and had to "try" them.
The third said that I couldn't go because I had been married, "because I have to spend dinner with my wife."
There is nothing wrong with owning a farm, inspecting purchased items, or spending evenings with your wife in your daily life. You will have to be faithful to these things in your daily life and at ordinary times. This is good work and it will be a beautiful effort.
It is not that he denied the Lord's purchase of fields. The Lord did not deny the purchase of cattle. The Lord is not denying marriage and pleasing wives. This is what a human should do.
But if these things serve as excuses or excuses for rejecting our God's invitation, it is bad and evil. Nothing should be an excuse for rejecting God's invitation.
In advance, in advance, we must deal with these worldly things and become the saints who joyfully participate in God's feast.
You must know how to distinguish God's feast day as a holy day. You must know how to distinguish the material to be dedicated to God as holy.
On the one hand, being able to make excuses and refuse is at least testifying that the one who opened the feast and invited it was kind.
If the person who invited you to the party was very strong and had an eccentric personality, you would not have dared to refuse the party if you were to take revenge.
In the case of a person with absolute power like the old Goeul-nim, if they come to the village and threaten to kill everyone or collect all the taxes if they do not attend the church every Sunday, there will be few people who will refuse the invitation.
Perhaps, in Jesus' parable of the great banquet today, the people who refused the invitation with no excuses did it because they knew the tender heart and love of the owner who was holding the great banquet.
God is love. Love can be rejected. God is a God of grace. So, people recklessly reject that invitation.
Even at this time, if God immediately inflicts terrible punishment on those who do not believe, there would be no one who would not believe.
The owner didn't want the feast food that he had prepared for several guests to be spoiled and thrown away. So he sent his servants to conspire with the crowds, and sent them to the banquet hall. Going out into the streets and alleys, along the roadsides and fences, the servants forcefully sent them into the master's banquet house.
But the important thing is that the people who were invited by force did not make excuses. A person without excuses, whether it is grace worthy or not, God does not want to hear excuses.
What would have happened if our Lord had made many excuses when he had to come to this earth as the baby Jesus? Today, this salvation does not exist. The Lord gave up the heavenly throne without any excuse and came from this world as the baby Jesus and became the Savior. It is giving up all of yourself, humbled yourself, and obeyed.
Today's text tells us that the owner is taking one more important step. It is the fact that those who made excuses changed their minds and closed the doors to prevent them from attending the feast. In fact, the owner is outraged. There are times when we do not think that God will be angry with those who reject His merciful invitation. But Isaiah 55:6 says, "Call the Lord while he may be found; seek him while he is near." Proverbs 1:24-33 warns us, "Do not treat us lightly with God's call." You have to remember that you are doing it.
If we only make excuses for the Lord's invitation or the Lord's commands, then when we seek the Lord, when we ask Him, the Lord may also excuse us. Therefore, in the name of the Lord, I ask that you do not become such Christians who only make excuses for your invitations, your commands, or your words.
Those who have been invited to the party and have just being with the Lord at this time should be the people who enjoy the feast.
Those who are invited later in today's text are those who participated in the feast with such a heart. The Jews who claimed to be the chosen people refused to participate in the feast of salvation that God opened through Jesus Christ and even crucified Jesus Christ to death.
So, today, God has given Gentiles, not Jews, a precious opportunity to receive Jesus as their Savior and to participate in the feast.
Jesus said that heaven is like a feast. Believing in Jesus is like being invited to the heavenly feast and attending the feast.
It was such a feast when the owner had a big heart and prepared a feast to serve when there was nothing to eat in his poor days. The heavenly feast is just like this. It is a feast of free grace.
Our religious life is like God's invitation to a big banquet house and enjoying the feast. If you are grateful for God's grace for inviting you regardless of this or that, instead of trying to fit your mood, you can live your life of faith according to the mood of the Lord who invited you.