“And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I find it necessary for me to go out and see it, I beg you, have me excused.’ ”

The excuses are to some extent patterned on the excuses offered to Israel’s fighting men before they went to war, (excuses which were probably not intended to be taken up as an examination of them demonstrates. See our commentary on Deu 20:5-7). There it was a house, a vineyard and a wife that gave the excuse. Here it is a piece of land (which could be a vineyard), a yoke of oxen and a wife. In Deuteronomy they were probably excuses offered in order to enable the men to refuse them, which would then nerve them for the fight and remind them of what they were fighting for. But there is no hint of warfare in this passage, apart possibly from the fight of faith. But they still excuse themselves.

We can take the excuses as either artificial or genuine. If the former they were typical of the excuses people make when faced up with the truth of the Gospel, if the latter they are evidence of ‘the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches and the desire for other things’ that make the word unfruitful (Mar 4:18-19). But either way they were a deep insult. Only the most urgent of catastrophes could excuse not responding to such a final invitation when it followed one already given and technically, if not actually, accepted.

One of those invited excused himself, making as his excuse the fact that the had bought a piece of land and needed to go out and examine it. But all would know that he could have done this at any time, and that the evening was not the best time for such a venture anyway. His need to see it suggests that his agent had bought it for him. He is deliberately depicted as wealthy. But the idea is either that he was just making an excuse, or that he was too taken up with his possessions to be willing to forsake them in order to go to the supper, that is, to enter into the Kingly Rule of God.

‘All with one consent.’ Apo mias probably signifies ‘unanimously’, although some have translated ‘all at once’, immediately’. But the point is clear. All took the same view.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The excuses:

v. 18. And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it; I pray thee have me excused.

v. 19. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them; I pray thee have me. excused.

v. 20. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.

With one consent, as if by previous agreement, the invited guests began to excuse themselves, courteously enough, but with an air of finality which cannot be overlooked; they begged off, they did not want to ‘come. The excuses of three of them are given as examples. One had bought a piece of ground, and just at that time the necessity devolved upon him to look it over; the purchase had not yet been made unconditional, and so it was absolutely necessary for him to go out at just this moment. His business was more important than the supper: he begged to be released from his promise. A second invited guest had just purchased five yoke, or pair, of oxen, and he was on the way to examine them. He was not even so anxious as the first man to make his refusal appear unavoidable: he wanted to go, it pleased him to do so, his business was also dearer and more important to him than the invitation. A third coolly stated to the servant that he had married a wife and therefore could not come. His marriage had taken place since he had first received the invitation, and that, he considered, absolved him from any social duties that he may have promised. It is not the factor of carnal pleasure that is here emphasized, but merely the fact that in his new happiness he cared nothing for distractions.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Luk 14:18. With one consent The phrase, is all that is in the original. It seems the most natural to supply the ellipsis by the word consent, as our translators have done.

See commentary on Luk 14:16

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Luk 14:18-20 . ] brings into prominence the beginning as a striking contrast to what has gone before. Comp. Fritzsche, ad Matth . p. 541.

] “Utut enim diversas causas adferant, in eo tamen conveniunt, quod sua praetexant negotia,” Calovius. On the adverbial use of , comp. (Thuc. i. 15. 3), (Plut. Symp . i. 4. 8), (Polyb. xv. 27), (Thucyd. i. 14. 3), and many others. It may be explained on the principle that the prepositions which originally express concrete local relations, come in time to denote the more abstract relations of mode; see especially, Lobeck, Paralip . p. 363.

] to deprecate ; praying to excuse, 2Ma 2:31 ; Act 25:11 , and elsewhere; and see Wetstein and Held, ad Plut. Timoleon , p. 496.

. . .] not as though he had bought the estate without seeing it (Wetstein, de Wette, and others), which is unnatural, even if a recommendation of it on the part of others, and the like, is supposed; but because even after a completed purchase there is the natural necessity to make a proper inspection of one’s new possession in order to become acquainted with it, to make further arrangements, and the like. The excuses are therefore not in themselves absurd, which, according to Lange, L. J . II. 1, p. 376, must be the intention in order to represent the vehement confusedness.

.] have me as one who is begged off ; not a Latinism (Kuinoel, Bleek, and many older commentators), nor to be interpreted: regard me as one, etc. (Kypke), but , with an added accusative of a substantive, participle, or adjective, expresses the relation of possession according to a special quality. Comp. Xen. Cyrop . iii. 1. 35: ; Ages . vi. 5 : , . . .; 2Ma 15:36 ; 3Ma 7:21 . See also on Mat 14:5 . Hence: Place thyself in such wise to me that I am an excused person; let me be to thee an excused person, i.e. according to the meaning: accept my apology.

Luk 14:19 . ] Already in idea he is just going forth.

Luk 14:20 . “Hic excusator, quo speciosiorem et honestiorem videtur habere causam, eo est ceteris importunior,” Bengel. On the excuse itself, comp. Deu 24:5 ; Hom. Il . ii. 231; Herod. i. 36, where Croesus declines for his son the Mysian proposal for a hunting expedition: . 1Co 7:33 is to the point.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

18 And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.

Ver. 18. I have bought, &c. ] Licitis perimus omnes. It is ordained that all die. More die by food than by poison. Cavete, latet anguis in herba. Beware, a snake lies hidden in the food.What more lawful than a farm? what more honourable of all pleasures than marriage? But these men had not so much bought their farms, &c., as were sold to them: not so much married wives, as were married to them. Uxori nubere nolo meae, I refuse to be married to my wife. Martial.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

18 20. ] , supply : so , Thucyd. i. 15; so (ch. Luk 7:30 ) they had rejected John’s baptism, and ( Joh 7:48 ) the Lord himself. The saying is not to be taken strictly without exception, e.g. Nicodemus: but generically. So also Luk 14:24 .

The temper of these self-excusers is threefold; the excuses themselves are threefold; their spirit is one . The first alleges an , he must go and see his land: the second not so much as this, only his own plan and purpose : the third not so much as either of these, but rudely asserts (i.e. ) . Also the excuses themselves are threefold. The first has his worldly possession (‘one to his farm,’ Mat 22:5 ) to go and see: the second his purchase (‘another to his merchandise,’ ibid.) of stock to prove: the third his home engagements and his lust to satisfy. All are detained by worldliness , in however varied forms.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Luk 14:18 . (supply , , , or some such word implying with one mind, or at one time, or in the same manner, here only in Greek literature), with one Consent. : not to refuse, but in courteous terms to excuse themselves. , the first; of three, simply samples, by no means exhausting the list of possible excuses. : a respectable excuse, by no means justifying absence, but excellently exemplifying preoccupation, the state of mind common to all. A man who has purchased a farm is for a while very much taken up with it and makes himself very busy about it; everything else for the moment secondary. : no fewer than three Latinisms have been found in this sentence; this, the use of in the sense of rogo , and (Grotius). But parallels can be found in Greek authors for the first. Kypke cites an instance of the second from Josephus. The third, if not a Latinism (Meyer and J. Weiss say no, Schanz and Hahn yes), is at least exactly = excusatum me habeto .

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Luke

EXCUSES NOT REASONS

Luk 14:18 .

Jesus Christ was at a feast in a Pharisee’s house. It was a strange place for Him-and His words at the table were also strange. For He first rebuked the guests, and then the host; telling the former to take the lower rooms, and bidding the latter widen his hospitality to those that could not recompense him. It was a sharp saying; and one of the other guests turned the edge of it by laying hold of our Lord’s final words: ‘Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just,’ and saying, no doubt in a pious tone and with a devout shake of the head, ‘Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God.’ It was a very proper thing to say, but there was a ring of conventional, commonplace piety about it, which struck unpleasantly on Christ’s ear. He answers the speaker with that strange story of the great feast that nobody would come to, as if He had said, ‘You pretend to think that it is a blessed thing to eat bread in the Kingdom of God, Why! You will not eat bread when it is offered to you.’

I dare say you all know enough of the parable to make it unnecessary for me to go over it. A great feast is prepared; invitations, more or less general, are sent out at first, everything is ready; and, behold, there is a table, and nobody to sit at it. A strange experience for a hospitable man! And so he sends his servants to beat up the unwilling guests, and, one after another, with more or less politeness, refuses to come.

I need not follow the story further. In the latter part of the parable our Lord shadows the transference of the blessings of the Kingdom to the Gentiles, outcasts as the Jews thought them, skulking in the hedges and tramping on the highways. In the first part He foreshadows the failure of His own preaching amongst His own people. But Jews and Englishmen are very much alike. The way in which these invited guests treated the invitation to this feast is being repeated, day by day, by thousands of men round us; and by some of ourselves. ‘They all, with one consent, began to make excuse.’

I. The first thing that I would desire you to notice is the strangely unanimous refusal.

The guests’ conduct in the story is such as life and reality would afford no example of. No set of people, asked to a great banquet, would behave as these people in the parable do. Then, is the introduction of such an unnatural trait as this a fault in the construction of narrative? No! Rather it is a beauty, for the very point of the story is the utter unnaturalness of the conduct described, and the contrast that is presented between the way in which men regard the lower blessings from which these people are represented as turning, and in which they regard the loftier blessings that are offered. Nobody would turn his hack upon such a banquet if he had the chance of going to it. What, then, shall we say of those who, by platoons and regiments, turn their backs upon this higher offer? The very preposterous unnaturalness of the conduct, if the parable were a true story, points to the deep meaning that lies behind it: that in that higher region the unnatural is the universal, or all but universal.

And, indeed, it is so. One would almost venture to say that there is a kind of law according to which the more valuable a thing is the less men care to have it; or, if you like to put it into more scientific language, the attraction of an object is in the inverse ratio to its worth. Small things, transitory things, material things, everybody grasps at; and the number of graspers steadily decreases as you go up the scale in preciousness, until, when you reach the highest of all, there are the fewest that want them. Is there anything lower than good that merely gratifies the body? Is there anything that the most of men want more? Are there many things lower in the scale than money? Are there many things that pull more strongly? Is not truth better than wealth? Are there more pursuers of it than there are of the former? For one man who is eager to know, and counts his life well spent, in following knowledge

‘Like a sinking star,

Beyond the furthest bounds of human thought,’

there are a hundred who think it rightly expended in the pursuit after the wealth that perishes. Is not goodness higher than truth, and are not the men that are content to devote themselves to becoming wise more numerous than those that are content to devote themselves to becoming pure? And, topmost of all, is there anything to be compared with the gifts that are held out to us in that great Saviour and in His message? And is there anything that the mass of men pass by with more unanimous refusal than the offered feast which the great King of humanity has provided for His subjects? What is offered for each of us, pressed upon us, in the gift of Jesus Christ? Help, guidance, companionship, restfulness of heart, power of obedience, victory over self, control of passions, supremacy over circumstances, tranquillity deep and genuine, death abolished, Heaven opened, measureless hopes following upon perfect fruition, here and hereafter. These things are all gathered into, and their various sparkles absorbed in, the one steady light of that one great encyclopaediacal word-Salvation. These gifts are going begging, lying at our doors, offered to every one of us, pressed upon all on the simple condition of taking Christ for Saviour and King. And what do we do with them? ‘They all, with one consent, began to make excuse.’

One hears of barbarous people that have no use for the gold that abounds in their country, and do not think it half as valuable as glass beads. That is how men estimate the true and the trumpery treasures which Christ and the world offer. I declare it seems to me that, calmly looking at men’s nature, and their duration, and then thinking of the aims of the most of them, we should not be very far wrong if we said an epidemic of insanity sits upon the world. For surely to turn away from the gold and to hug the glass beads is very little short of madness. ‘This their way is their folly, and their posterity approve their sayings.’

And now notice that this refusal may be, and often in fact is, accompanied with lip recognition of the preciousness of the neglected things. That Pharisee who put up the pillow of his pious sentiment-a piece of cant, because he did not feel what he was saying-to deaden the cannon-ball of Christ’s word, is only a pattern of a good many of us who think that to say, ‘Blessed is he that eateth bread in the Kingdom of God,’ with the proper unctuous roll of the voice, is pretty nearly as good as to take the bread that is offered to us. There are no more difficult people to get at than the people, of whom I am sure I have some specimens before me now, who bow their heads in assent to the word of the Gospel, and by bowing them escape its impact, and let it whistle harmlessly over. You that believe every word that I or my brethren preach, and never dream of letting it affect your conduct-if there be degrees in that lunatic asylum of the world, surely you are candidates for the highest place.

II. Now, secondly, notice the flimsy excuses.

‘They all, with one consent, began.’ I do not suppose that they had laid their heads together, or that our Lord intends us to suppose that there was a conspiracy and concert of refusal, but only that without any previous consultation, all had the same sentiments, and offered substantially the same answer. All the reasons that are given come to one and the same thing-viz. occupation with present interests, duties, possessions, or affections. There are differences in the excuses which are not only helps to the vividness of the narrative, but also express differences in the speakers. One man is a shade politer than the others. He puts his refusal on the ground of necessity. He ‘must,’ and so he courteously prays that he may be held excused. The second one is not quite so polite; but still there is a touch of courtesy about him too. He does not pretend necessity as his friend had done, but he simply says, ‘I am going’; and that is not quite so courteous as the former answer, but still he begs to be excused. The last man thinks that he has such an undeniable reason that he may be as brusque as he likes, and so he says, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come’ and I do not make any apologies. So with varying degrees of apparent recognition of the claims of host and feast, the ground of refusal is set forth as possessions in two cases, and as affections in the third; and these so fill the men’s hearts and minds that they have no time to attend to the call that summons them to the feast.

Now it is obvious to note that the alleged necessity in one of these excuses was no necessity at all. Who made the ‘must’? The man himself. The field would not run away though he waited till to-morrow. The bargain was finished, for he had bought it. There was no necessity for his going, and the next day would have done quite as well as to-day; so the ‘must’ was entirely in his own mind. That is to say, a great many of us mask inclinations under the garb of imperative duties and say, ‘We are so pressed by necessary obligations and engagements that we really have not got any time to attend to these higher questions which you are trying to press upon us.’ You remember the old story. ‘I must live,’ said the thief. ‘I do not see the necessity,’ said the judge. A man says, ‘I must be at business to-morrow morning at half-past eight. How can I think about religion?’ Well, if you really must , you can think about it. But if you are only juggling and deceiving yourself with inclinations that pose as necessities, the sooner the veil is off the better, and you understand whereabouts you are, and what is your true position in reference to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

But then let me, only in a word, remind you that the other side of the excuse is a very operative one. ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ There are some of us around whom the strong grasp of earthly affections is flung so embracingly and sweetly that we cannot, as we think, turn our loves upward and fix them upon God. Fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, parents and children, remember Christ’s deep words, ‘A man’s foes shall be they of his own household’; and be sure that the prediction is fulfilled many a time by the hindrances of their love even more than by the opposition of their hatred.

All these excuses refer to legitimate things. It is perfectly right that the man should go and see after his field, perfectly right that the ten bullocks should be harnessed and tried, perfectly right that the sweetness of wedded love should be tasted and drunk, perfectly wrong that any of them should be put as a reason for not accepting Christ’s offer. Let us take the lesson that legitimate business and lawful and pure affections may ruin a soul, and may constitute the hindrance that blocks its road to God.

Brethren, I said that these were flimsy excuses. I shall have to explain what I mean by that in a moment. As excuses they are flimsy; but as reasons which actually operate with hundreds of people, preventing them from being Christians, they are not flimsy; they are most solid and real. Our Lord does not mean them as exhaustive. There are a great many other grounds upon which different types of character turn away from the offered blessings of the Gospel, which do not come within view of the parable. But although not exhaustive they are widely operative. I wonder how many men and women there are listening to me now of whom it is true that they are so busy with their daily occupations that they have not time to be religious, and of how many men, and perhaps more especially women, among us at this moment it is true that their hearts are so ensnared with loves that belong to earth-beautiful and potentially sacred and elevating as these are-that they have not time to turn themselves to the one eternal Lover of their souls. Let me beseech you, dear friends-and you especially who are strangers to this place and to my voice-to do what I cannot, and would not if I could, lay these thoughts on your own hearts, and ask yourselves, ‘Is it I?’

And then before I pass from this point of my discourse, remember that the contrariety between these duties and the acceptance of the offered feast existed only in the imagination of the men that made them. There is no reason why you should not go to the feast and see after your field. There is no reason why you should not love your wife and go to the feast. God’s summons comes into collision with many wishes, but with no duties or legitimate occupations. The more a man accepts and lives upon the good that Jesus Christ spreads before him, the more fit will he be for all his work, and for all his enjoyments. The field will be better tilled, the bullocks will be better driven, the wife will be more wisely, tenderly, and sacredly loved if in your hearts Christ is enthroned, and whatsoever you do you do as for Him. It is only the excessive and abusive possession of His gifts and absorption in our duties and relations that turns them into impediments in the path of our Christian life. And the flimsiness of the excuse is manifest by the fact that the contrarity is self-created.

III. Lastly, note the real reason.

I have said that as pretexts the three explanations were unsatisfactory. When a man pleads a previous engagement as a reason for not accepting an invitation, nine times out of ten it is a polite way of saying, ‘I do not want to go.’ It was so in this case. How all these absolute impossibilities, which made it perfectly out of the question that the three recreants should sit down at the table, would have melted into thin air if, by any chance, there had come into their minds a wish to be there! They would have found means to look after the field and the cattle and the home, and to be in their places notwithstanding, if they had wanted. The real reason that underlies men’s turning away from Christ’s offer is, as I said in the beginning of my remarks, that they do not care to have it. They have no inclinations and no tastes for the higher and purer blessings.

Brother, do not let us lose ourselves in generalities. I am talking about you, and about the set of your inclinations and tastes. And I want you to ask yourself whether it is not a fact that some of you like oxen better than God; whether it is not a fact that if the two were there before you, you would rather have a good big field made over to you than have the food that is spread upon that table.

Well then what is the cause of the perverted inclination? Why is it that when Christ says, ‘Child, come to Me, and I will give thee pardon, peace, purity, power, hope, Heaven, Myself,’ there is no responsive desire kindled in the heart? Why do I not want God? Why do I not care for Jesus Christ? Why do the blessings about which preachers are perpetually talking seem to me so shadowy, so remote from anything that I need, so ill-fitting to anything that I desire? There must be something very deeply wrong. This is what is wrong, your heart has shaken itself loose from dependence upon God; and you have no love as you ought to have for Him. You prefer to stand alone. The prodigal son, having gone away into the far country, likes the swine’s husks better than the bread in his father’s house, and it is only when the supply of the latter coarse dainty gives out that the purer taste becomes strong. Strange, is it not? but yet it is true.

Now there are one or two things that I want to say about this indifference, resulting from preoccupation and from alienation, and which hides its ugliness behind all manner of flimsy excuses. One is that the reason itself is utterly unreasonable. I have said the true reason is indifference. Can anybody put into words which do not betray the absurdity of the position, the conduct of the man who says, ‘I do not want God; give me five yoke of oxen. That is the real good, and I will stick by that.’ There is one mystery in the world, and if it were solved everything would be solved; and that mystery is that men turn away from God and cleave to earth. No account can be given of sin. No account can be given of man’s preference for the lesser and the lower; and neglect of the greater and the higher, except to say it is utterly inexplicable and unreasonable.

I need not say such indifference is shameful ingratitude to the yearning love which provides, and the infinite sacrifice by which was provided, this great feast to which we are asked. It cost Christ pains, and tears, and blood, to prepare that feast, and He looks to us, and says to us, ‘Come and drink of the wine which I have mingled, and eat of the bread which I have provided at such a cost.’ There are monsters of ingratitude, but there are none more miraculously monstrous than the men who look, as some of us are doing, untouched on Christ’s sacrifice, and listen unmoved to Christ’s pleadings.

The excuses will disappear one day. We can trick our consciences; we can put off the messengers; we cannot deceive the Host. All the thin curtains that we weave to veil the naked ugliness of our unwillingness to accept Christ will be burnt up one day. And I pray you to ask yourselves, ‘What shall I say when He comes and asks me, “Why was thy place empty at My table”?’ ‘And he was speechless.’ Do not, dear brethren, refuse that gift, lest you bring upon yourselves the terrible and righteous wrath of the Host whose invitation you are slighting, and at whose table you are refusing to sit.

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

with one consent = from (Greek. apo. App-104. iv) one [mind],

make excuse . beg off.

a piece of ground = a field.

must needs = have need to.

go = go out (i.e. from the city). Greek. exerchomai, as in verses: Luk 14:21, Luk 14:23.

and see = to see. App-133.

I pray. App-134.

have = consider me.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

18-20.] , supply : so , Thucyd. i. 15; so (ch. Luk 7:30) they had rejected Johns baptism, and (Joh 7:48) the Lord himself. The saying is not to be taken strictly without exception, e.g. Nicodemus: but generically. So also Luk 14:24.

The temper of these self-excusers is threefold; the excuses themselves are threefold; their spirit is one. The first alleges an ,-he must go and see his land: the second not so much as this, only his own plan and purpose-: the third not so much as either of these, but rudely asserts (i.e. ) . Also the excuses themselves are threefold. The first has his worldly possession (one to his farm, Mat 22:5) to go and see: the second his purchase (another to his merchandise, ibid.) of stock to prove: the third his home engagements and his lust to satisfy. All are detained by worldliness, in however varied forms.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Luk 14:18. , they began) Previously they had professed for their part to be in a state of expectation [waiting for the call to be given].- ) Elliptical, says Camerarius, who adds, , viz. , with one consent or mind (with unanimity); or (with one declining), i.e. they all alike began to decline the invitation. So almost similarly in Iliad , , namely, supplying , if ever we shall deliberate with unity of counsel among us: and so elsewhere, , , namely, , the vaunting is not pious wherewith one vaunts over the dead. And in Psalms 26, , namely, ; and in Psalms 57, , namely, . [-, to make excuse) To buy a piece of ground, etc., are things not bad in themselves; but it is bad to be entangled and encumbered by such things, and to make as our pretext necessity in the case of earthly things combined with (alleged) impossibility (Luk 14:26, , I cannot come) in the case of spiritual things.-V. g.-, to Him) who had prepared the banquet.-V. g.]-, a field [piece of ground]) In this verse there is implied a farm, in the following verse, trafficking, merchandise. Comp. Mat 22:5 [They went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise]. The verb, , I have bought, repeated in both cases, Luk 14:18-19, implies eagerness to make gain, as is the usual feeling whilst the transaction is still recent. To a worldly man when he is made sensible of the Divine call, all vain things are new and sweet.-[, I have bought) It is profitable to allege on the opposite side as a ground for denying the world, another and very different purchase of a field (the Gospel-field containing the pearl of great price), Mat 13:44, another kind of plowing (the Gospel-plow), Luk 9:62, in fine, another espousal (viz. to Christ), 2Co 11:2.-V. g.]- , I must needs, I feel it necessary) Often there meet together the most acceptable seasons of grace, and the most urgent calls of worldly business. This man makes as his pretext a feigned necessity: The second, a mere inclination after other things, Luk 14:19, , I go; The third, Luk 14:20, a perverse allegation of impossibility, I cannot come. This last one declares expressly that he cannot; the two former declare that they will not, but use a courteous formula of apology. The holy hatred ( ) spoken of in Luk 14:26 [if they had felt it] could have healed them all of their excuses. However the variety in their modes of rejecting the invitation lay not so much in their state of mind [which was the same in all three] as in the objects on which their rejection of it rested, the piece of land, the oxen, the wife. Comp. Matt. l. c.-, I beg, I pray, thee) A most unworthy and wretched prayer (request) whereby the kingdom of God is refused.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

all: Luk 20:4, Luk 20:5, Isa 28:12, Isa 28:13, Isa 29:11, Isa 29:12, Jer 5:4, Jer 5:5, Jer 6:10, Jer 6:16, Jer 6:17, Mat 22:5, Mat 22:6, Joh 1:11, Joh 5:40, Act 13:45, Act 13:46, Act 18:5, Act 18:6, Act 28:25-27

I have: Luk 8:14, Luk 17:26-31, Luk 18:24, Mat 24:38, Mat 24:39, 1Ti 6:9, 1Ti 6:10, 2Ti 4:4, 2Ti 4:10, Heb 12:16, 1Jo 2:15, 1Jo 2:16

Reciprocal: Gen 25:34 – thus Esau Deu 20:7 – lest he die Pro 1:30 – General Mar 4:15 – these Mar 4:19 – the cares Luk 9:61 – but Act 17:32 – We will

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

INNOCENT OCCUPATIONS

They all with one consent began to make excuse.

Luk 14:18

To make excuse, to beg off. This was no sudden, unexpected summons, something making an unlooked-for demand upon time already blocked with legitimate engagements. It was the case of an invitation offered and accepted, where, therefore, the coming of the guests might be looked for as a matter of course. Yet they begged to be excused, the great supper had no special charms for them as compared with what they had otherwise in hand.

I. The matters for which they disregarded the summons were right and proper in themselves.There was not a neglecting of plain duty for some evil indulgence, some definitely sinful pursuit. It was right and proper that men who had bought a field or five yoke of oxen should examine the quality of their purchase. If a man wished to marry a wife, there was no reason why he should not do so. That men should put their heart into their normal work is obviously right. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, says the wise King, do it with thy might. St. Paul bids the Romans not to be slothful in business, though he carefully qualifies his orders by adding the further command to be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Obviously, too, the married state is at any rate permissible, not to say desirable, for men. Yet the giver of the supper was angry, and we feel that he was discourteously and unfairly treated.

II. Clearly there are occupations, which to name is to condemn.If in work, be it manual or mental, or in amusement, for recreation of body or mind, we cannot ask the Saviour to look on and bless the work or the recreation, clearly neither the work nor the play is such as any Christian man or woman has any right to indulge in. Lawful recreation is a good thing, but think for a moment how much of what, by a ghastly misnomer, is now called pleasure would have to be swept away.

(a) For example, works of fiction, when the selection is wisely made, and where due regard is had to the time that can legitimately be given to recreation, have a very proper and wholesome function. Yet, to say nothing of excess of indulgence even in the best works of fiction, does not the press of the present day pour forth books, which presumably are read, which are a disgrace to our Christianity, not to say our civilisation?

(b) Or take a second instance: what of the craze for gambling that seems to eat like a cancer, where the interest of a game seems nought unless it has the excitement which comes from the risking of money, where, whoever wins, some one must lose? Clearly recreations such as these are outside the circle of possible blessing.

Now let us look at the other side.

(c) Honest hard work of the right kind should be an unmixed blessing, yet work may take aspects from which the Christian man shrinks back.

(d) Or, again, what more noble, intellectual pursuit than the study of the laws of Gods working in nature, if so be that the study of the laws brings us nearer to the Lawgiver? Yet there is knowledge which may not lawfully be come by.

III. To bring the matter to a practical issue for ourselves.If we are to avoid putting ourselves in the position of the guests of the parable, to avoid the danger of making excuse, whether occasionally or all through life, then we must remember that there is a danger that even necessary and laudable work may obscure the sense of the higher duty. If God is in all our thoughts, in all our works, the danger does not assail, though it be ever nigh. The commonest occupation may be glorified if this thought be present; the noblest occupation may be vitiated if it be absent.

(a) Is the merchant in his counting-house, the tradesman in his shop, the student among his books, in some sort less the servant of God than when engaged in direct religious duties? Surely it would sometimes seem as if men thought so by the actions they appear to justify to themselves.

(b) Rightly viewed, a mans riches, his influence, his talents, his learning, all is but a loan deposited with him by the Master to be used in that Masters cause. Alas! how easy it is to forget this and half unconsciously to make excuse!

(c) Are we never in danger of allowing our public worship to become mechanical, of allowing our main thought on leaving church to be the beauty or faultiness of the singing, the eloquence or tediousness of the sermon?

We have to face more insidious dangers than denial of the faith, or defiant disregard of Gods laws. Many a one to whom defiance would be an appalling thought, does not find it an unnatural thing to make excuse. May He, may our Good Shepherd ever be so absolutely ruling in all our thoughts and actions that nought may obscure the perfect welcome we give to the Masters invitation!

Rev. Dr. Sinker.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

EXCUSES

The necessity of serving Christ is acknowledged by most people, but they have formed their own standard of religion.

I. When a higher standard is urged upon them they make excuses for not accepting it.

(a) Consider, for instance, the attendance at the daily services of the Church. How many are there who could come to morning or evening prayer if they would! But now in this Christian land there are literally only two or three gathered together whenever a church is opened for week-day prayer.

(b) Then, again, how many regular church-goers there are who always excuse themselves when they are invited to the Holy Communion. It is the chief Service of our Church. It is the Service which our Lord Himself instituted, and which no Christian in the early days of the Church ever thought of neglecting. But now it is completely ignored from years end to years end by the mass of those who have been baptized into Christs Church

(c) Then, again, take the case of the Offertory. How often may it be said, What a paltry number of copper coins and little bits of silver money has been given in Gods name by people who could perfectly well afford to give generously, if they only allowed their consciences to dictate the amount of their offerings! How often do they pray that they may be excused?

II. Now what are these excuses worth?There can be but one answer to such a question as this. No real excuse has been found, or ever will be discovered, to justify professing Christians in adopting the worlds standard of religion. The excuses which are offered now by those who wish to enter heaven, on their own terms, are just the same pitiful pleas which were made by the invited guests spoken of in the parable.

(a) Some excuse themselves still on the plea of worldly occupations, and say that family cares leave them no time to think of personal holiness.

(b) Others excuse themselves on account of their love of pleasure, since they imagine that no one can enjoy life who tries to live as an earnest Christian.

(c) Then, again, the possession of this worlds goods is often a cause for these excuses. The rich man, in the parable, is represented as going to gratify his pride by walking about and gazing at the land which he had purchased, in preference to attending the supper.

(d) Even the love of relatives and friends may alienate the affections from God. Infatuated love for a godless husband, or for a worldly-minded wife, has often been taken advantage of by Satan to get a soul into his power.

If you wish to profit by the parable, examine yourselves and see what excuses you have been making for the neglect of any Christian duties which your consciences tell you ought to have been performed.

Rev. W. S. Randall.

Illustrations

(1) When the good missionary Bishop Otto was doing his best to spread the Gospel in Prussia, some centuries ago, he found that one of the most powerful influences against him was caused by some of the very people who had already professed Christianity. The inhabitants of Stettin, one of the most important towns in Pomerania, received the bishop with scorn. They refused to change their religion and give up idolatry; and to all the missionary said they only replied: Are there not thieves and robbers among you Christians? The inconsistent lives of their neighbours who were supposed to be Christians were an argument against which the good bishop had the greatest difficulty to contend. But this difficulty has been encountered in all parts of the world, and we should not be allowed to lose sight of the fact that the cause of the Gospel is still hindered, as much as it ever was, by the behaviour of many who call themselves Christians.

(2) An old Spanish proverb truly puts itThe road of by and by leads to the town of Never.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

8

In an illustration some items need to be told to make the story intelligible, even though they are not literally applicable. Make excuse is rendered “excuse themselves” in the Englishman’s Greek New Testament. Much speculation has been done over these “excuses,” but we should see in them only a part of the parable that was intended to portray the unfavorable attitude of the Jews to the Gospel.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs to and see it: I pray thee have me excused.

[With one consent to make excuse.] A very ridiculous, as well as clownish and unmannerly excuse this, if it grew towards night; for it was supper-time. A very unseasonable time to go and see a piece of ground new bought, or to try a yoke of oxen. The substantive, therefore, that should answer to the adjective, I would not seek any otherwhere than as it is included in the word make excuse; so that the sense of it may be they began all for one cause to make excuse; i.e. for one and the same aversation they had to it.

Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels

Luk 14:18. And they all. The exceptions among the rulers and Pharisees were so few, that this feature of the parable might well be thus stated.

With one consent, or accord. All in the same spirit, although the excuses are different as well as the manner in which they were made. All were prompted by worldliness, though in different forms.

To make excuse. They acknowledged the obligation to some extent.

I have bought a field, etc. This represents the man of business, occupied with his possessions, yet not uncourteous, but pleading necessity: I must needs go out and see it. Not that he had bought it without seeing it, but that it needed looking after, or it may refer to a chance for a bargain, which depended on his going out to see the land just then.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Luk 14:18-20. And they all with one consent is all that is in the original. It seems most natural to supply the ellipsis by the word , consent, as our translators have done, an interpretation maintained by Beza and Wolfius. Began to make excuse As if by mutual agreement they had all contrived to put a slight upon the entertainment, and to affront him that had kindly provided it, and invited them to partake of it. The first said, I have bought a piece of ground, &c., and another, I have bought five yoke of oxen It is a beautiful circumstance that our Lord here represents both these bargains as already made; so that going to see the farm and to prove the oxen that evening, rather than the next morning, was merely the effect of rudeness on the one hand, and of a foolish, impatient humour on the other; and could never have been urged, had they esteemed the inviter, or his entertainment. Accordingly, it is commonly found in fact, that men neglect the blessings and demands of the gospel, not for the most important affairs in life, with which they seldom interfere; but to indulge the caprice and folly of their own tempers, and to gratify the impulse of present passions, sometimes excited on very low occasions. Doddridge. Another said, I have married a wife, &c., I cannot come As the process of the parable represents a wise and good man offended with this excuse among the rest, we must suppose something either in the circumstance of receiving the message, or of appointing the time for entertaining company on his marriage, which implied a rude contempt of the inviter, and made the reply indecent. It was not necessary to descend to such particulars. If the first of the persons here invited had had so important an affair to transact as the purchasing of a farm, or the second the buying of five yoke of oxen, or the third the marrying of a wife, and if these affairs had come upon them unexpectedly, the very evening they had promised to spend at their rich neighbours house; but especially if these affairs could not have been delayed without missing the opportunity of doing them, their excuses would have been reasonable. But none of all these was the case. The farm and the oxen were already purchased, and the wife was married; so that the seeing of the farm, and the proving of the oxen, were pieces of unreasonable curiosity, which might easily have been deferred till next morning. And with respect to the new-married mans pretending that he could not leave his wife for a few hours, it was such an excess of fondness as was perfectly ridiculous; not to mention that he ought to have thought of this, when the invitation was sent him the preceding day. Wherefore, their refusing so late to come to their rich friends supper, on such trifling pretences, was the height of rudeness, inasmuch as it implied the greatest disrespect to their friend, and contempt of his entertainment. No wonder, therefore, that he was very angry when his servant returned and brought him their answer. Macknight. We may observe, further, respecting these excuses, that the things which were the matter of them were not only little things, and of small concern, comparatively speaking, and things which might have been easily done at another time, which would not have interfered with this important invitation; but they, were lawful things. Each of the actions here alleged, in behalf of the refusal of these persons to attend the feast, was wholly lawful: there was nothing criminal in any of them. They were such as might well be, and are constantly done, in perfect consistency with embracing the gospel and its blessings. But these men rendered the things which were otherwise lawful and innocent, criminal and destructive by their abuse. And, while they were kept by means of them from the royal feast, they became the cause of their utter ruin. It was a wise saying of Judge Hales (see his Life) that we are ruined by things allowed. Peoples trades and families, and the necessary avocations of life, by the too great anxiety wherewith they are pursued and regarded, become as powerful obstacles to the experience and practice of true religion, and as much prevent mens eternal salvation, as grosser sins. We have proof of this every day: while men, engaged in pursuits otherwise laudable, by their too close attachment to them, withdraw their minds totally from God, and from heaven, and neglect that which to regard duly would forward and advantage even their temporal concerns. To provide for a family, to prosecute industriously and honestly the business of a mans calling, to be faithful to his wife, and to take care of his children, are certainly high and commendable duties, enjoined by God, and amiable in the sight of men. But when these, or any of them, are loved and pursued with such attachment and intenseness as to prevent our complying with the gracious invitations of God; to alienate our minds from Christ and the gospel; to keep us from the due and regular discharge of our duly to our God and Redeemer; then, how laudable soever our pursuits may be, how honest and upright soever our employments, truth it is, they will as certainly exclude us from the joys of our Lord, and his eternal feast; will as certainly draw down his wrath upon us, as if our neglect of him proceeded from any cause more criminal.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

14:18 {4} And they all with {b} one [consent] began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.

(4) For the most part even those to whom God has revealed himself are so mad, that any help which they have received of God they willingly turn into obstructions and hindrances.

(b) On purpose, and a thing agreed upon before: for though they give different reasons why they cannot come, yet all of them agree in this, that they have their excuses so that they may not come to supper.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Those invited refused to participate. They tried to excuse themselves by giving acceptable reasons for not attending the banquet. The three excuses Jesus cited are only representative of many others that other invited guests undoubtedly gave. One man begged off on the ground that he had recently become the owner of some real estate and needed to tend to it. Apparently he was proud of his position as a landowner in his community. Another person with new possessions expressed his greater interest in them than in the invitation. The fact that both of these men inspected their purchases after they bought them shows their love of them since they would undoubtedly have also inspected them before buying them. A third man cited his recent marriage as his excuse implying that pleasure was more important to him. These individuals represent the many who had declined to accept Jesus’ gospel invitation for similar reasons.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)