Tuesday - December 17 2024

SCRIPTURE

Luke 7.31- 35

To what then will I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the market-place and calling to one another, “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not weep.” For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, “He has a demon”; the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners!” Nevertheless, wisdom is vindicated by all her children.’

WORDS OF HOPE

Often times, when I read the Bible I do not “get it”. A passage I am reading may not speak to me at that moment. But then I reread the passage and encounter something at another time and it speaks to me. The first part of this passage is like that. It never seemed to mean much to me. But as I read it now it speaks.

The children calling to each other remind me so much now of the way things seem to be in our society. These children seek recognition. They want acknowledgement for what they have done. They expect their actions will produce a desired result. “We played the flute for you, and you didn’t dance”. They didn’t ask if their peers wanted to dance or even to hear music. They just expected everyone should have stopped and been moved.

I almost wonder if the wailing they did was in frustration of not having attention paid to them. Children can be known to do that sort of thing. But here, Jesus is telling an adult audience they are acting like children.

But then Jesus talks about the reaction to John and himself. It’s hard to call what Jesus is referring to as anything but hypocrisy. He points out that John has come as an aesthetic. He eats no bread he drinks no wine. He eats whatever he encounters (locusts?). And he’s accused of being possessed. Jesus comes along acting in a fairly conventional manner, eating, and drinking, like everyone else, and he’s accused of being a glutton.

In addition to that he’s accused of hanging around with tax collectors and sinners. And from what we know of Jesus, this is probably an accurate statement. Because those are the people who most need his message.

Jesus is essentially saying you can’t have it both ways. You can’t say that John is possessed by a demon because of the way he dresses and acts. You can’t say Jesus is a gluten because of the way he dresses and acts just because those two things are the opposite ends of the spectrum. Not everyone is going to fit into your middle of the road concept.

From the description, there’s no doubt that John does not fit in with a society around him. And while it may not be evident in this passage, neither does Jesus. While he spends time with those who would be considered outcasts, he also spends time with the “upper crust”. In the passage that immediately follows this one, Jesus has dinner at the house of a Pharisee. But all the while Jesus is presenting a message that does not fit what many of the Jewish community would be the one that comes from the Messiah. Many expected a strong military leader; not unreasonable, given both the history of Israel and the history of Rome.

So, in thinking about it, I came to realize that there is actually a connection between these two passages. And all of it has to do with attention. The children in the street were playing the flute and nobody‘s dancing. They want attention. The people who are attacking John from one end and Jesus from the other are doing so I think because they don’t like the attention being pulled away.

While this may seem to be a passage about hypocrisy and judging people based on appearance and lifestyle; I wonder if what Jesus is really talking about here is jealousy. The people who are complaining about him and John are basically jealous that these two people are drawing the attention of the crowds, of the Pharisees, of everyone. They failed to recognize that the message of both are messages for all.

PRAYER

Great Creator, we look to see your spirit that resides in all people, regardless of whether they act or look as we expect. Help us to understand that we, too no doubt appear strange to someone; but we are all the same in your enveloping love.

DEVOTION AUTHOR

Weber Baker

Order of Saint Francis and Saint Clare