Wisdom

Luke 7:24-35 continues upon the departure of John's disciples. Jesus was still in the city of Nain. Jesus was still in the company of “many of his disciples” and “much people.” When John's disciples left, the same crowd remained. It was to this crowd that Jesus turned and spoke about John.

It is evident in his address that Jesus spoke to people who had once followed John. John had been the big thing until Jesus showed up. It was as if Jesus took all of John's customers and John was facing bankruptcy – and wondering how much longer he should hold out before he closed up shop.

They now followed Jesus, but previously, they had followed John. Jesus asked them why. He asked them what they were hoping to find in the baptist. He asked them what they were looking for in the former 'big thing.'

It is in these passages that we discover critical information, not only about John but also about the people who had once followed him. As for the crowd who had followed John, including some of the disciples present, it becomes apparent that they had been baptized by John. Even Jesus had been baptized.

In regard to that fact, Jesus made this comment in verse 35, “But wisdom is justified of all her children.” Here, I would ask the reader to focus on the word 'justified.' Merriam-Webster gives this definition of the word: 'to prove or show to be just, right, or reasonable.' The word justified is used twice in this portion of text. Before Christ made his comment, the writer of this gospel pointed out that the very act of being baptized “justified God,” proving, as the definition goes, that His 'capacity, condition, or state of acting or of exerting power' in their lives was just and right.

It is also pointed out, by way of comparison, that “the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves” by not being baptized by John. In other words, the audience that Jesus addressed had accepted the counsel of God, and by doing so, had proven the actions and wisdom, both of God's counsel and of their own response, to be just, right and reasonable. It is obvious to all who read these accounts that there was a bone of contention between Jesus and the religious authorities. It now occurs to me that the failure to be baptized by John figured heavily into that contentious relationship.

Baptism was the open and visible testimony that an individual had knowingly accepted the counsel of God. To illustrate that clear division between either accepting or rejecting the counsel of God, Jesus made this comparison between those who accepted and those who did not: “Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like? They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, we have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept.”

Joy and sorrow are like oil and water. They are used to represent the two types of individuals. Those who accept the counsel of God seek to share their joy in new life, but the sorrowful will not be a part of their celebration. The sorrowful, who have rejected the counsel of God, seek to share a sense of grave dedication and self-enslavement to the letter of the law, but those who find joy in new life will not be brought down to such an un-life-like existence.

There had been a time when a dedication to the letter of the law was applicable. That time was not the time of Jesus. Jesus set that previous time as opposite to his time of new life as outlined in the counsel of God. Jesus gave his opinion of his cousin, John. Of all the men born of women, and representative of the previous time – a time in which the law ruled with an iron fist, John was the greatest, for he was a prophet of God tasked with bringing mankind into the time of Christ, where the counsel and covenant of God were realized in redemption, new life, joy, and love.

Jesus painted a picture of John as the greatest of all men, but he added that the least of men in the time of Christ were greater than all men of the previous time, including John, because those in the time of Christ were the children of God's wisdom. They justified God's will and work.

Pointing clearly and openly at the Pharisees and lawyers, Jesus explained what it was not to be a child of the wisdom of God – showing the utter futility of the mindset that is based on rejection rather than acceptance. John came adhering to a legalistic appearance, “neither eating bread nor drinking wine” and the Pharisees and lawyers rejected him. Jesus came in a more relaxed and life-like appearance: “eating and drinking” and accepting anyone who accepted the counsel of God. The Pharisees and lawyers used that to reject Jesus. In the eyes of the Pharisees and lawyers, you were damned if you did and damned if you didn't.

I suppose, in the minds of Pharisees and lawyers, all was fair, for they fought for what they believed in. Too bad they believed in their law-keeping rather than God. The mind that rejects will find a reason to reject again. In their rejection of John and Jesus, the Pharisees and lawyers actually rejected God. There is no wisdom in that.