Verse 18
18. They all They seem to have been the gentry of the city, which we suppose to be Jerusalem. This they would seem to include the Pharisees, the present hearers of our Lord, and even the self-congratulating individual to whom the parable was addressed.
With one consent Scarce a single individual of the hierarchy accepted the invitation of the Gospel. There have been a number of explanations of these three excuses. Some explain the piece of ground as referring to property possessed, the oxen as property getting, and the wife as sensual enjoyments. We might suggest that the land is dead materiality; that the oxen rise to animal life, and the wife to human and social life. It seems doubtful, however, whether our Lord meant any symbolical classification. The three simply mean that the attractions of this world overcome the attractions of that eating bread in the kingdom of God which this man was lauding.
Have me excused. There is a climax in the form of the excuse. The first feels himself under the necessity, needs, to refuse; the second will not affirm necessity, and would go, but begs to be excused. The third neither pleads necessity nor asks to be excused, but stays away of his will.
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