16 “To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:
17 ‘We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’
18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.” Matthew 11:16-19.
Jesus is speaking of this generation. On the surface, the expression seems harmless enough, meaning the people who are alive now. But in the Bible, this phrase generally refers to an unfaithful generation. It calls to mind the wicked generation of Noah’s day (Gen. 6:5–8) as well as the faithless generation of Israel that was denied entrance into the promised land (Deut. 1:35; 32:5). Jesus later make these recollections from biblical history even more explicit (17:17; 24:37–39).
Then follows a proverb that looks at village life in Palestine. According to customs among children, boys invited their companions to dance at weddings and girls sang laments at funerals and invited their friends to mourn. Here, sounding the flute refers to the call of Jesus, who spoke of Himself the bridegroom enjoying the celebration of a wedding feast (9:15). In the same way, the singing of a dirge represents the ascetic witness of John the Baptizer, in particular the fasting he encouraged among his disciples (9:14). And the disagreeable playmates who refuse to dance or mourn — these are the crowds that declined both the festive invitation of Jesus as well as the penitential summons of John.
John came neither eating nor drinking, which means that he engaged in no celebratory feasting. This desert prophet, who lived on foods found in the wild, had nothing to do with banquets and delicacies. Nor did he know the joys of wine that normally went with it. For this reason, in verse 18 some people thought John was remarkably strange and concluded that he must be possessed by a demon. Jesus, however, attended dinner parties as a means of bringing His message to the common people. Yet some glared with a critical eye and called him a glutton and a drunkard (see Deut. 21:20).
In the end, it seems that nothing could please the faithless generation of John and Jesus. They turned their backs on feasting as well as fasting, for they wanted nothing to do with the wisdom of the Messiah and his forerunner.”
In your prayer today consider how often you too have turned your back on Jesus and what is written in the Bible. I probably have broken the record book in this regard. So pray that you would have the sufficient grace of God to avoid turning your back on He who loves you to death!
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy ion me a sinner.
From the Bible:
“For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire” 2 Peter 2:20-22.
“But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear”
Isaiah 59:2.
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