(“Making Excuses”)

Luke 14:1-24 (NASU)

(Luke 14:18a)

“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teach-ing, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteous-ness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” (II Timothy 3:16-17)

(A) THE ART OF MAKING AN EXCUSE

(1) We’ve all done it to others – and we’ve had them do it to us. More often than not we see right through their words – but for some reason we don’t think they will see through ours. We justify it by telling ourselves we’re trying to avoid hurting people’s feelings.¹ But usually the truth is, we’re either trying to avoid taking responsibility for our actions,¹ wiggle out of something we really don’t want to do, or trying to find a “civil” way to decline an invitation we’d rather not accept. I’m talking, of course, about the art of making excuses.¹

(2) Most excuses are simply lies, and therefore a violation of God’s Ninth Commandment (c.f. Exodus 20:16). Excuses are dishonest because they do not accurately reflect reality … indeed, most of the time we use them to cover-up what we’re really thinking or feeling … and/or to try and justify our behavior. How many times have we told someone, “I forgot”, when we really didn’t forget at all – or, we forgot on purpose because we didn’t want to do what we agreed to do?!¹

(3) Some excuses are so lame people wonder how we ever had the audacity to use them. Indeed, they illustrate the adage attributed to Thomas Fuller, that “bad excuses are worse than none.”⁵ For example, the following are reported to be actual notes sent to school teachers by the parents of absent children.²

“Please excuse Jennifer for missing school yesterday. We forgot to get the Sunday paper off the porch, and when we found it Monday, we thought it was Sunday.”²

“Sally won’t be in school a week from Friday. We have to attend her funeral.”² (Even if this “author” meant to say, “we have to a funeral”, it begs the question how one knows they will be attending a funeral a week in advance!)

“Please excuse Josh for being absent. I forgot to wake him up and didn’t find him until I started making the beds – by then it was too late for him to go to school.”³

These excuses are funny to us, but they are still lies. And as lies, the God of truth finds them offensive(c.f. Psalm 31:5) – indeed, the Scripture says, “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord” (c.f. Proverbs 12:22a).

(4) Scripture contains numerous examples of people who made excuses for their behavior and/or why they couldn’t do what they were told.

(a) The world’s first excuse was offered by Adam in Genesis chapter three, when he tried to explain why he had disobeyed God’s single prohibition, saying: “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate” (c.f. Genesis 3:12).

(b) Moses came up with a whole series of excuses why he couldn’t go to Egypt and deliver the people of Israel from slavery like the Lord was calling him to.

Excuse #1 was: “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” (c.f. Exodus 3:11).

Excuse #2 was: “(If)I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you’ … they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I (tell) them?” (c.f. Exodus 3:13).

In excuse #3 Moses asked: “What if they will not believe me or listen to what I say? For they may say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you’” (c.f. Exodus 4:1).

And finally, in excuse #4 Moses pleaded with God, saying: “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue” (c.f. Exodus 4:10).

After God shot each excuse full of holes, Moses finally spoke honestly, and said: “Please, Lord, now send the message by whomever You will” (c.f. Exodus 4:12) – i.e. “Please, send someone else, because I don’t want to go!” Obviously the Lord knew this all along … so it would have been better for Moses to forego all his excuses and just get the truth out in the open!

(c) Moses’ brother Aaron gave one the most ridiculous excuses ever recorded in Scripture when he explained his role in the idolatry of Israel, while Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments, like this: “I (told the people), ‘Whoever has any gold, let them tear it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf” (c.f. Exodus 32:24).

(d) Most excuses are far more subtle, like the religious lawyer in Luke chapter ten, who, when Jesus confronted him with the fact that he did not really love God with all his heart, nor his neighbor as himself as he claimed, sought to “justify himself” by asking: “And who is my neighbor?” (c.f. Luke 10:25-29). The fact Scripture says he asked this question to “justify himself” indicates he was searching for a way to “excuse his moral failure”.

(5) Every excuse is a “lame” excuse – “lame” meaning “weak”, “ineffectual”, or “lacking substance”.⁴ If we have a legitimate reason for what we’ve done or not done (as the case may be), then its not an excuse is it? However, if we don’t have a legitimate reason, all we’re left with is a pretext, a ploy, and/or a rationalization. Benjamin Franklin said: “He that is good (at) making excuses is seldom good (at) anything else.”⁶ While another person said: “People who have to ‘make up an excuse’ obviously don’t have one.”

(B) THE PRIMARY APPLICATION OF OUR TEXT

(1) Throughout His earthly ministry, one of the bones of contention between Jesus and religious leaders like the Pharisees was the fact He healed people on the Sabbath, which they (i.e. the Pharisees) interpreted to be a violation of the Fifth Commandment (c.f. John 5:1-18).

I mention that, because in today’s Scripture lesson, our Lord was invited to the home of a prominent Pharisee for a meal.⁷ However, this was not a friendly invitation – rather, it was a “set up” to see if Jesus would heal a man suffering from dropsy on the Sabbath – a man who had been deliberately seated in front of Jesus so He could not possibly miss him. After healing the man, Jesus asked His devious accusers: “Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?” – and we’re told “they could make no reply to this” (c.f. Luke 14:1-7), because they all knew they would break their own Sabbath rules to rescue their son or livestock.

(2) Having silenced His critics for the moment, Jesus told the other invited guests a parable having to do with humility. As one writer put it, our Lord was teaching His listeners that “humility is a fundamental mark of those who are truly citizens of God’s kingdom.”⁷ The parable ended with Jesus saying that “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (c.f. Luke 14:7-11).

(3) Our Lord then urged His host to invite the poor and the crippled and the blind the next time he gave a dinner, rather than his friends, relatives, and/or rich neighbors.⁷ The reason being that the latter could repay him by returning his invitation, but the former could not. Therefore, Jesus said, “you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (c.f. Luke 14:12-14). In other words, God would reward him in heaven for the compassion and generosity he showed the poor on earth.

(4) At this point, one of the other guests exclaimed: “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God” (c.f. Luke 14:15). We don’t know why the man said this. Some think he was expressing a heartfelt desire for the culmination of God’s kingdom⁸ – others think it was the superficial shout of a self-righteous Pharisee⁸ – still others suggest it may have been an attempt to change the subject⁹ to break the growing tension around the table. Regardless of his motives, Jesus used his exclamation as a spring board to another parable about people who made excuses why they could not attend a great dinner to which they had been invited multiple times.

(5) Scripture often pictures the joys of heaven and the new earth (c.f. II Peter 3:13) as that of guests seated around a great banquet table filled with food and wine, conversing with each other and with their generous host.⁸ Various elements of this picture can be found in the following representative passages of Scripture … Isaiah 25:6: “The Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain; a banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, and refined, aged wine” … Matthew 22:2: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son” … Revelation 19:9: “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb”.

(6) One of the points Jesus frequently made – and makes again in today’s Scripture lesson (c.f. Luke 14:16-24) – is that many of the Jews (especially the religious leaders) who expected to be at that heavenly banquet would be left out. Again, here are a couple of representative examples … Matthew 8:11-12: “I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” … and in the last verse of this morning’s Scripture lesson, the host says: “I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner” (c.f. Luke 14:24).

(7) The reason these people would be left out of the heavenly banquet is because they refused to accept the invitation offered to them multiple times. Indeed, they not only rejected God’s invitation, but as Jesus illustrated, they actually made up excuses why they could not attend.

For example, one said: “I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused” (c.f. Luke 14:18) … but no one (at least with any common sense) buys a piece of property sight unseen … and even if he did, he could easily examine it more thoroughly after the banquet.¹⁰ Hence, his excuse was just that – an excuse – a made up reason to reject¹² the banquet giver’s invitation, so he could do something else that interested him more.

Another said: “I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused” (c.f. Luke 14:19) … but again, no one buys a “tractor” or a truck without driving it first … and even if they do, waiting until after the banquet is over to “try it out” will not make it work any better or worse. So again, all we have here is an excuse – a made up reason to reject¹² the banquet giver’s hospitality in favor of doing something that appealed to him more.

The third man said: “I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come” (c.f. Luke 15:20) … but what wife wouldn’t enjoy an elegant dinner in the home of one the community’s more prestigious citizens?¹¹ Hence, it wasn’t the wife who didn’t want to come, but her husband. Furthermore, his excuse was really a lie to cover up the fact he really didn’t want to have anything to do with¹² the banquet giver or his great banquet.

(8) Now think about all the flimsy excuses people use to justify not becoming a Christian. Here’s a sample.

“All the Christians I know are hypocrites – and I don’t want to be a hypocrite.”

“I’m too busy having fun. If I became a Christian I’d have to stop. I’ll think about becoming a Christian later.”

“What did God ever do for me?” – or, “I can’t become a Christian because I’m not one of the elect.”

“How can I believe in a God who lets so much suffering go on in the world?” – or, “How can I believe in a God who would let (this or that) happen to me?”

“My parents made me go to church when I was growing up, and that turned me off to religion.”

“I’m not good enough to be a Christian” – or, “I don’t know enough to be a Christian.”

“God won’t condemn me because I try to be a good person.” Or, the other extreme: “My sins are so great God would never forgive me.”

Now there are biblical answers to all these excuses – but answering them is not within the scope of this message. The point here is that every excuse people make regarding why they can’t become a Christian is just that – an excuse of their own making – a made up reason to camouflage the truth, which is that they really aren’t interested in becoming a Christian (at least not in the biblical sense) – they like who they are, and they want to go right on being that person – and/or they like what they’re doing, and they want to go right on doing it.

To put it another way, the thing that keeps people out of heaven and/or away from Christ’s heavenly banquet is their own unbelief – their refusal to repent and believe the Gospel – their refusal to put their trust solely and only in Jesus Christ. Indeed, they have lots of excuses for not doing so. Hence, this morning’s text is as true now as it was in Jesus’ day – i.e. “they all alike began to make excuses” (c.f. Luke 14:18a).

(C) A SECONDARY APPLICATION OF OUR TEXT

(1) Now that’s the primary application of today’s text – namely, that the excuses the Jewish religious leaders made for not believing Jesus was the Christ, and receiving Him as their Savior (like the notion He supposedly broke the Fifth Commandment by healing people on the Sabbath – c.f. Luke 13:14), (these excuses) kept them out of the very kingdom of which they expected to be a part.

By extension, the excuses people make today for not professing faith in Jesus as the only Savior of sinners, and thereby becoming a Christian, only serves to keep them out of that same kingdom of heaven.

In the time we have left, then, I want to turn to a secondary application – i.e. from making excuses to God, to making excuses to each other (and even to ourselves!). To become a Christian we had to stop making excuses about our spiritual condition. We had to admit we were sinners, and that we could not save ourselves. In a similar fashion, now that we are Christians, we need to learn to replace making excuses to each other (c.f. Colossians 3:9) with speaking the truth in love (c.f. Ephesians 4:15, 25).

(2) Making excuses is so widespread, and has become such a normal part of the way we relate with each other, that to try and stop will initially feel awkward and/or unnatural. Indeed, there will be moments we won’t know what to say, because we’re so used to making excuses in those situations.

For example, someone asks: “Would you like to meet for lunch on Tuesday?” But for whatever the reason, this isn’t something we want to do. It’s not that we can’t, we just don’t want to. So, the old “what-kind-of-an-excuse-can-I-come-up-with” program kicks in, and we start to say something like: “I’d love to, but I’ve already made other plans.” Of course, the truth is we have no “plans” beyond what we normally do on Tuesdays. So, given our new commitment to stop making excuses, the question becomes, what do we say now?

Actually, we have a couple of choices. We could just be truthful, and politely decline the invitation without making up an excuse. Admittedly, it’s a novel idea … and people may be surprised at our candor … but at least we haven’t lied to them. However, if we discern our reasons for not wanting to accept the luncheon invitation are purely self-centered, we can always do the biblical thing of putting the other person first (c.f. Philippians 2:3), and go eat lunch with them – in which case, the “need” to manufacture a so-called “good excuse” is eliminated.

(3) As I said earlier, we often tell ourselves the art of “excuse making” is necessary to protect other people’s feelings. That may be partially true, but normally we use excuses to make ourselves feel better. More often than not, the primary reason behind our excuses has to do with self-protection.

Let’s say, for example, that we get into an animated discussion with our spouse – and along the way we say something like, “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard” – or, “Why can’t you be more like my mother/father?” – or, “I think you must have rocks in your head!” – you know, something cutting/insulting, something rude/insensitive, something that belittles the other person and/or attacks their personal worth.

Once we realize what we’ve done, how do we get out of this mess? The right thing to do would be to apologize and ask to be forgiven. Instead, we often try and come up with a “face saving excuse” like, “You know I didn’t mean that” (when that’s exactly what we meant at the time!) – or, “I was just kidding” (when everyone knows we weren’t). The Book of Proverbs speaks to this issue, saying: “Like a madman shooting firebrands or deadly arrows is a man who deceives his neighbor and says, ‘I was only joking!’” (c.f. Proverbs 26:18-19, NIV).

(4) Along these same lines (i.e. of self-protection), we often use excuses to avoid taking personal responsibility for our actions. When questioned about her role in the Fall of mankind, Eve said: “The serpent deceived me, and I ate” (c.f. Genesis 3:13b). When asked where Abel was, Cain replied: “Am I my brother's keeper?” (c.f. Genesis 4:9c). When asked why he had not obeyed the voice of the Lord and destroyed everything belonging to the Amalekites, Saul answered: “the people spared the best of the sheep and oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord” (c.f. I Samuel 15:15b).

Recently the sports world was stunned by two brawls – one between college football players from South Carolina and Clemson before the start of their game – and the other between several professional basketball players from Indiana and some fans in Detroit. In both instances, there is probably plenty of blame to go round … but I have yet to hear anyone stand up and take responsibility for what they did … all I’ve heard are excuses.

(5) You and I aren’t always much different – but by Christ’s enabling grace (c.f. Hebrews 4:16) we should be! Instead of making excuses, we need to learn to take responsibility for our actions – and where possible, make restitution (c.f. Exodus 22:1-6). Instead of making excuses we need to learn to own up to what we’ve done – and where necessary, ask forgiveness (c.f. Genesis 50:16-17).

When Jacob’s sons were gradually confronted with the enormity of their sin against Joseph many years after the fact, I don’t recall them ever trying to excuse what they had done. They never said, “Well, you have to remember we were young and foolish back then” – or, “If our father hadn’t been so overt about Joseph being his favorite, things might have been different.” Instead they said things like: “What can we speak? And how can we justify ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants” (c.f. Genesis 44:16) – and, “please forgive the transgression of (your) servants” (c.f. Genesis 50:17).

(6) I don’t recall a single instance where Jesus ever made an excuse for Himself, His disciples, or anyone else. To the woman caught in adultery He said: “go and sin no more” (c.f. John 8:11b, NKJV). Regarding those who crucified Him, He said: “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (c.f. Luke 23:34a) – which was not an excuse, but a statement of fact. Regarding the man born blind from birth He essentially said: “The Father caused this man to be born blind so I could be glorified by giving him is sight” (c.f. John 9:3). And, rather than offering an excuse for Peter’s three-fold denial, He required a three-fold response of repentance (c.f. John 21:15-16).

(7) In short, our Lord didn’t make excuses – and as His disciples, neither should we! However, like everything else in life, it’s not a habit we can break on our own. Rather, as Christians our only hope is to turn to Christ, whom the Scripture says, “has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (c.f. Hebrews 2:18) – which means He was tempted to make the kind of excuses we’ve been talking about this morning, but never did. As Christians, our only hope of overcoming the temptation to make excuses for ourselves is to flee to Christ, whom the Scripture says, “is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted” (c.f. Hebrews 2:18). We were saved by His grace, now we must learn to rely on His grace in times of need (c.f. Hebrews 4:16) – like, for example, when we are tempted to begin making excuses (c.f. Luke 15:18a).

¹Sermon by Rev. Bruce Goettsche; June 3, 2001; “The

Fine Art of Making Excuses; Internet Site.

²Heartlight Magazine: Making Excuses; by Alan Smith;

Internet Site.

³Sermons4Kids: Making Excuses; Internet Site.

⁴Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary; p. 473.

⁵About.com: Quotes; Excuses; Thomas Fuller.

⁶Personal-Development.com; Article Entitled, “Excuses”.

⁷Keddie: He Spoke In Parables; p. 121.

⁸Hendricksen: NTC – Luke; p. 730.

⁹The NGSB: Footnote on Luke 14:15; p. 1634.