LEARNING DAILY

Matthew 11:19, “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by her children.

Luke 7:35, But wisdom is proved right by all her children.

The Israelites just did not understand who Jesus was. John wrote that Jesus had made the world, was in the world but His people did not recognize Him (John 1). Matthew and Luke wrote that neither John the Baptist nor Jesus fit their idea, their expectation of how a prophet should look like and act. In Matthew 11:18, Jesus said that people believed John the Baptist was possessed by a demon because of how he dressed, because of what he ate and because he called people to repent of their sins.

Jesus, on the other hand, ate with sinners, attended parties, and evidently would drink some wine. The people did not want to hear the message Jesus brought, so they made up stories, false accusations about Jesus. Notice the things people said about Jesus was just the opposite of what they said about John. Because Jesus did not abstain from wine and did not fast (an accusation made in other Scriptures), He must be a “glutton and a drunkard”. But neither of these accusations were true!

You know the phrase “guilt by association”. Jesus hung out with tax collectors – Matthew, a former tax collector, had been called to be a disciple. Jesus and His disciples often ate in homes of people the religious leaders considered to be sinners. Don’t forget about former prostitutes who were forgiven by Jesus and followed Him. Those religious leaders would have nothing to do with the people Jesus hung out with; they wanted nothing to do with those who needed them the most. Jesus let them know about this whenever He had the opportunity, condemning them for not helping those who were (spiritually) sick. Jesus said it was not the people who were (spiritually) healthy that He came to help. It was the sick who needed the doctor.

 Jesus compared the people of His day to children who are not happy with any game or activity being played. That is what these verses are referring to. People rejected John the Baptist for His lifestyle and rejected Jesus for living His lifestyle. It was a generation of people who lacked consistency in their judgments. It was if they wanted to control what their children did but were not able to do so. They acted like they had the wisdom to judge correctly, but in their attempts to do they failed to recognize Jesus as the Messiah they wanted to come so badly. Jesus challenged them saying, “But wisdom is proved right by all her children”. He wanted them to look at what their wisdom was producing – failure to recognize the one who speaks of the coming Messiah and the coming of the Messiah Himself.

Be careful of spiritual pride and arrogance when looking at others. May wisdom produce the right living God desires as we walk the narrow way into His kingdom. May wisdom produce obedience to His word and demonstration of right living to others. May wisdom produce greater light in our lives so we might shine brightly in this evil, dark world each day! May wisdom enable us to be alert and ready when the trumpet sounds that will call us to meet Jesus in the clouds.