Word to the Wise
Friday, December 10, 2021 - 2nd Week of Advent - Fri
[Isa 48:17-19 and Matt 11:16-19]"To what shall I compare this generation? It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another, "We played the flute for you, but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.' For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, 'He is possessed by a demon.' The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said, 'Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.' But wisdom is vindicated by her works."
Jesus' words today sound like the expression, "There's no pleasing some people!" This was true when Jesus was alive and preaching, and it was true in the community for which Matthew wrote his gospel. The image of the children seems to come from the funeral customs of the day when the men played pipes and the women wailed. But Jesus' last words in this passage simply call attention to the ultimate results of John's and his own preaching. If the listeners hear and accept the preaching, they come to salvation. That is the ultimate wisdom.
Pastors know well that some parishioners prefer to stay alienated and nothing will reconcile them. The reasons are many and no one approach fits all. Sometimes the best effort is to leave the alienated one alone and simply give good example. It is frustrating to hear the equivalent of "I've made up my mind, don't bother me with facts!" But, as a wise old priest once said in a talk to would-be clergy, "The Lord puts such people in our midst to keep us on our toes!" There were such people in Jesus' time and there are such people in ours. AMEN