Meditationen am Gnadenstuhl: Tuesday Easter III - Luke 7:29-35

Tuesday Easter III

Daily Lectionary Readings: Exodus 34:1-28; Luke 7:18-35; (Sirach 47)

Luke 7:29-35:

[29] (When all the people heard this, and the tax collectors too, they declared God just, having been baptized with the baptism of John, [30] but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.)

[31] “To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? [32] They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another,

“‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;

we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’

[33] For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ [34] The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ [35] Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.” (ESV)

Luke 7:18-35, which deals with the messengers from John the Baptist and people's reaction to Jesus' response, can be divided into four parts. John's question and Jesus' answer. Jesus' witness about John. The people who either reject or accept God's plan of salvation. Finally, Jesus' judgment of those who reject God's plan. Today, we will take a closer look at the last two.

In Luke 7:29-30, we see two groups. "all the people and the tax collectors too," and "the Pharisees and the lawyers." "All the people" are those who live in the tradition of the Old Testament children of Israel and the promise of the coming Messiah. "The tax collectors too" means sinners are included. We are familiar with our old friends, the Pharisees. They believed they were justified by their works and were not sinners. "The lawyers" refers to the Scribes, those "Doctors of the Law" who studied the Scriptures in minute detail, as well as made perfect copies of them.

The Pharisees and Scribes are contrasted with the ordinary people. These religious leaders stand for everyone who opposes Jesus and His mission of salvation, starting with rejecting the role of John the Baptist as the forerunner of Christ. Their scorn for John is illustrated by their unwillingness to submit to John’s baptism – a sinner’s baptism and a call to repentance. They reject absolution and fail to see that forgiveness of sins is something they require.

“The people of this generation,” the Pharisees and Scribes are here described as the children in the marketplace. They are the religious leaders who wanted John, and now Jesus, to behave in a certain manner. Plating the flute and dancing are wedding activities. Dirges and mourning are funeral activities. The point of the illustration is they want John and Jesus to act the opposite of the way they do. John is somber, calling for repentance; Jesus is joyful, proclaiming the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins. Neither John nor Jesus is what they want.

One of Luke's focuses is the rejection of the prophet John and the Messiah Jesus, who come proclaiming the coming of the kingdom of God, which is contrary to the message of the Pharisees. The “children of Wisdom” are the most unlikely people – the very sinners and tax collectors with whom Jesus eats and preaches and whom the Legalists condemn. Jesus’ table fellowship with sinners shows his care and concern for those on the fringe, the unloved and unwanted, to whom the kingdom of God belongs because their unworthiness is made worthy in Christ – contrasted with the Pharisees who think the kingdom belongs to them by their self-righteousness, which only condemns them.