This is an edited version of a message given on 7/17/09.
"But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates, 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.'" (Mat 11:16-17, ESV)
Our Lord, having just sung accolades about John the Baptist now turns to the crowd and begins to rebuke them.
Jesus is telling the crowd that they are like children who play a song and call out to their friends to come dance, and they say, "Nah, we don't want to." Or who play a funeral hymn and tell their friends come let us mourn, and the friends say, "Nah we don't want to."
Some people are just negative. No matter what is proposed, they have a rebuttal. They are "contrary." I'm like that! Lord have mercy on me! Then there is the other extreme where people are "yes men." No matter what is proposed, they accept it. Like the character Pliable from Pilgrim's Progress. But I am only focusing on the first type of person -- the contrarian.
There is a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance (Ecc. 3:4). But here, Jesus is speaking about people who should be dancing or mourning but choose not to.
John announced that the kingdom of heaven is at hand and the people say, "nah, we don't want it." Jesus offers the kingdom of heaven to them and the people say, "nah, we don't want it."
In a sense, they played the songs of repentance and of promises, but the people refused it. We have a wedding song and a funeral dirge.
It's like hearing two preachers. One preaches "escape the wrath to come;" the other speaks of "the love and grace of God." Both speak the truth, just differently. One says, "come dance, rejoice in God's salvation, taste and see that the Lord is good." The other, "come lament over your sins, and seek God's forgiveness."
Yet, we criticize the one for being all love and all grace and the other for speaking only about judgment. Actually, both are speaking the truth. We should respond appropriately and not criticize the message or messenger, just because we don't like it or think we could do better. Of course, that's assuming it's not some heresy.
There is a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance. Some of us mourn when we should be dancing or rejoicing. Some of you are probably thinking, "ooh, dancing is evil." YOU ARE BEING CONTRARY! There are times to celebrate!
Here's an example of being contrary. Everyone knows the story of the prodigal son. The younger asks for his inheritance, goes and wastes it on loose living. He ends up feeding swine. He repents and humbly returns home, expecting the worst and hoping to at least be a servant. Instead, the father rejoices, gives him gifts and orders a feast to be given. And they began to celebrate.
"Now [the] older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.' But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out... And he said to him, '…It was fitting to celebrate and be glad…'" (Luk 15:22-32)
The elder son should have been celebrating, instead, he's criticizing. He was supposed to be laughing and dancing, instead he's complaining. He's being contrary!
Aren't we often like that?
My brother called me Saturday to tell me he's been attending church for 5 weeks! I was ecstatic! Of course, I quizzed him to see if he really was a Christian--if he knew what it meant. Interestingly, he asked me not to tell mom. Mom is a Christian and I'm sure that her greatest desire is to see the last of her unsaved children saved.
But she's contrary! That's were I get it from, I think!
"For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.' The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds." (Mat 11:18-19)
This is obviously part of the same thought as that of the children calling out to their friends and the friends refusing. People then like now were contrary.
John ate bugs and honey, he must have a devil. Jesus ate and drank and to top it off, he did it with sinners! He must be a glutton and a drunk.
God desires all men to come to Him and uses different people and means. John was austere and had a particular message to certain people. Jesus hung out with common folk, He had a message for everyone.
Paul says, "To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. (1Co 9:22, ESV)
When we criticize we are, in a sense, becoming judges. Now, we are to test all things and hold fast to that which is good. (1Thes 5:21). But when we are critical, we not only hold on to the good, in a sense, we hold on to the bad.
When I was preparing this message, I searched for a source on the Internet, that quotes Billy Graham as saying that he'd "be happy if 4% of the converts continued in the faith." I couldn't find it, though I've found it before. But I found hundreds of links to websites that were viciously critical of him. They were like saying, "Oh, he's a friend of tax collectors." But worse yet, "He hangs out with Catholics!" [I've since learned that the number attributed to him is 5%]
By the way, the reason I was looking that up was because, I used to be critical of his outreaches myself. I had a hard time rejoicing at the multitudes that came forward at his meetings, knowing that only a few would "make it." Now, I rejoice for the few that will make it and pray that all would make it.
Critics become judges.
James tells us that when we judge others we judge the law, and we aren't supposed be judges but doers of the law, which boils down to loving God and loving others as ourselves.
Often, we don't know the whole story or see the bigger picture. Mark relates the following event:
And while [Jesus] was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. There were some who said to themselves indignantly, "Why was the ointment wasted like that? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor." And they scolded her. But Jesus said, "Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial." (Mar 14:3-8, ESV)
There was a time, not long ago, when I looked at the expense of renovation at our new church building and thought, what a waste! We should have moved in 7-months ago and used the money to help the poor.
I catch myself thinking things like that and have to repent. Sometimes, I just chuckle and tell the devil, "nice try!"
There are some things going on at our church that I don't agree with, especially with the new building project. That will always be the case. So long as we don't break too many of God's rules, I can deal with it. Every congregation has issues. Even our beloved Puritan settlers had some major issues!
Our passage in Matthew ends with "Wisdom is justified by her deeds." John and Jesus both performed good deeds, but the critics didn't see it. In many cases the contrarians had to fight hard not to see. I mean, c'mon, the blind saw, the lame walked, the deaf heard, and people were being raised from the dead!
Wisdom is also a personification of Christ (Prov 8, 1 Cor 1:24). His deeds truly do justify Him.
So too will the objects of our criticism be either justified or condemned by their deeds. We often don't see the whole picture. We should not rush to judgment. Test all things and hold on to the good, maybe try to correct the bad, otherwise, let it go -- don't hold onto the bad.
