Excuses

My focal passage this week is Luke 13 to 16. I hope you will read it along with me.

As I read through this morning, one phrase of one verse really stopped me. I was reading this morning out of the Holman Christian Standard Bible, and the first part of Luke 14:18 just stopped me as I read it:

But without exception they all began to make excuses. . .

Without exception. The attempt to "get out" of the invitation of the Lord was not a statistical anomaly, not a fluke, not a one-in-a-million response. Rather than the exception to the rule, this was the rule - Lord, I've got something I'd rather do. . .

Without exception. It speaks to the brokenness and rebellion within the human heart. It speaks to how wrapped up we are in our own desires that we would be blind to the as-yet-untasted blessings that God has planned for us.

The Apostle Paul will echo this sentiment in Romans 3:23:

For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

C.S. Lewis will strike at the same vein in his sermon The Weight of Glory:

Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. 

Without exception.

We make excuses. Certainly none of us want to paint ourselves in a bad light - the light of rebellion, or ignorance, or sin. We have our reasons for wanting what we want. We consider them good reasons. We just never consider that when placed beside the wisdom of God, our good reasons pale in comparison to his best.

I pray that this week would not be a week of excuses, but a week of saying "yes" to the promises an the commands of Christ Jesus. I hope you will join me in praying for just such an attitude and response.