Word to the Wise
Friday, December 14, 2012 - 2nd Week of Advent - Fri
[Isa 48:17-19 and Matt 11:16-19,823]'We played the flute for you, but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.'
Jesus quotes something that must have been familiar to his audience from their own childhood - a kind of mocking ditty about skepticism. He is referriing to those who found excuses for rejecting both John the Baptist and himself. They criticized John for being anti-social and Jesus for being social! The fact is that it really didn't matter because neither Jesus nor John fit the pattern that many in their day had decided on in regard to the Messiah.
Advent is about more than preparing for Jesus' birth. It is about all of Jesus' life. That life would include rejection by his own people. In the Gospel of Matthew, which has its own version of Jesus' birth, this rejection would be represented by the actions of Herod in seeking to kill the newborn Messiah when the Magi arrive looking for him. Scripture scholars tell us that the "infancy narratives" in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke were the last parts of those two gospels to be put in writing and they were composed with the rest of Jesus' life in mind.
In this season of anticipation governed so much by the secular "holiday" celebration, we are challenged to focus on our own expectations of Jesus. The sheer familiarity of the story can keep us from realizing its full meaning. Why not read the stories from Matthew and Luke now, think on them till Dec. 24, and then hear them aloud on December 25th. It can make a big difference. AMEN