“One by one, they all began to make
excuses.”
Luke 14:18
(Common English Bible)
An anxious eye on the clock and the
unending fight with time accurately describes the character and tempo of life
today. We are a people always on the move, operating on a tight and crowded schedule.
The pace of life seems swifter than that of a previous generation, the pressure
harder and responsibilities to be borne heavier than they should be for any one
person. The tragic consequence for millions is that little time is given to
cultivate the life of the soul – little time left to know and enjoy God.
Luke’s story offers caution. In this
parable, Jesus speaks of a man who prepared a great feast and sent out
invitations to his friends to be his guest. One by one they sent their
apologies. The first had bought a farm and felt it prudent to go and look it
over. The second closed a deal for five oxen and was off to check on them. The
third had recently married – perhaps the strongest excuse but an excuse
nonetheless. At that the host directed his servant to go out and bring to the
feast the poor, the crippled, blind, and lame. Jesus’ point is clear. All three
men were engaged in perfectly legitimate activities. Yet, so immersed in them
were they that they left room in their lives for nothing else.
Jesus’ life was also filled with many
legitimate activities. Some may say that Jesus’ life was burdened with the
needs and hurts of others. But do not fail to notice an important distinction
between the life lived by Jesus and the life of the men in the parable. Jesus
made time for quiet, for prayer, and for God. Precisely because the demands of
life exhausted Jesus he would slip away from the crowds and the bustle to be
alone with God. If Jesus realized the sustaining need of regular time with God,
how much more do we? Jesus’ deepest need to get through each day was spiritual.
So is ours.
We are a busy people. Occupied and
preoccupied by this and that, and the other thing, those things that matter
most are often crowded out. Luke’s Gospel makes a plea for the human heart and
soul – a plea for perspective and recognition of the supreme values for which
Jesus stood. In an overcrowded life, and the pressure and pace being greater
than they should be, Jesus’s own life calls us to practice discrimination – to
choose wisely what will fill our lives, never neglecting to reserve time for
the spiritual. The spiritual should have priority over everything else. Our
duty to God comes before all other demands placed upon us. Should we become
anxious about what we face this day, let us first be anxious for God.
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