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...

I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet. 

Luke 14: 14-15; 24, NIV (1978)

I had a young man in the youth group at church by the name of Billy Anderson. Billy was your typical teen - full of life and energy - but he developed a terrible disease that somehow attacked his enzymes. Within a few years, he went from an athletic young man to be confined to a wheelchair. My parents would pick him up one Sundays to take him to church. I remember one day, he came over to their house, and I was negotiating his wheelchair up the steps by a large hedge they had growing there. Billy looked at that hedge and kind of wistfully said that he could remember jumping over that very hedge just a few years earlier. He wasn't really complaining, mind you, he was just remembering how quickly his life had changed.

It wasn't too long after that that Billy died. He was barely in his twenties. My dad was asked to do the funeral - something that was a bit remarkable since he was not a preacher, but Mom and Dad had been picking up Billy for a while at that point (at Billy's request) so that he could go to the worship services with them. Billy had to be lifted in and out of the car just to get him to the church building, but there he was, wheeling himself in with a big smile on his face.

It shames me to think how many times at a similar age that I looked for excuses not to attend the worship - a headache, a busy time, just plain tired - whatever the excuse, I had probably made it. And then Billy comes along and demonstrates how a man ought to live. He viewed the worship and fellowship as a privilege! He overcame obstacles just to be there that most of us would have felt a martyr for just having experienced. 

I had been looking for excuses not to serve God to the best of my ability, while Billy was looking for ways to get past his difficult circumstances and serve God and Christ to the best of his ability.

In the parable we see above, Jesus described those who have been given a great privilege, but who viewed it as an inconvenience. "Come to the banquet" was the Master's call. "I can't" was the people's response. One had a field to attend to, another five yoke of oxen, yet another still had just been married and couldn't come... or so they said.

This would be bad enough if the parable of the banquet was just referring to food and fellowship, but of course, it wasn't. It was an allegory for we who have been invited to serve the Master and His Son, but who look for excuses instead of seeing the privilege. So we say that our possessions are preventing us from that service, "I would come to worship this first day of the week, as was commanded, but this old lawn is not going to mow itself." "I would study more, but I've business to attend to. A man has to provide for his family, after all." I would help my neighbor who is struggling, but I have a family that needs my attention." "I would help my parents out, but I have devoted that portion of my salary to God."

Whatever the excuse, in the end, it will not be enough. There will come a day when we kneel before our Lord at the Judgment - and make no mistake, while He loves us dearly, He will still make the perfect judgment for our eternal souls, Those who have been faithful will enjoy the great banquet with He and His Son. Those who disdained their offer to serve them - those who looked at that offer as an inconvenience, rather than a privilege - those very people may learn that they will not get a taste of that banquet.

What excuses have you been using to convince yourself that you simply do not have time to serve God? Do you think God will accept them as legitimate reasons to get out of His service, or do you think He will see right through them? The time to think about these things is now, while we still have a chance to do something about correcting our past misdeeds. The fact is that when we talk about changing our lives, we are talking about doing those difficult things that will make life worth living.

What is you excuse? Isn't it time to start looking for ways to live right before God? It will change your life, and possibly your eternity, if you will just stop excusing yourself and start the service for which you were created in the first place.