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Day 88

Luke 7:29-35 "TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT RESPONSES"

Day 88 – Luke 7

Text: Luke 7:29-35

TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT RESPONSES

As we may now come to expect, there would be two or more reactions to the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. On the one hand, there was the general multitude, “all the people heard Him, even the tax collectors”. These proclaimed the righteousness of God, the meaning of the words “justified God” (Luke 7:29).

This reaction was “expected”. John had baptized many of the people who made up the multitude. They were of course delighted to hear Jesus praise John. Some, if not all of them, would have come to personal faith in Christ, and therefore, they too would appreciate what was said about those who belonged to the Kingdom of God, were “greater than” John (Luke 7:28). Yes, just to have one’s sins forgiven, and be received into the Kingdom of God as His children was superlative blessing indeed!

The second group of people has already been identified. These were the “Pharisees and the lawyers” (those skilled in the Law of Moses) who had “rejected the will of God for themselves” (Luke 7:30).

The “will” of God referred to here was the “counsel” of John the Baptiser. In the Gospel of Luke, John spoke very strong words to the multitude. Let’s read again the words of John the Baptiser to the multitudes,

“Brood of vipers!
Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Therefore bear (bring forth) fruits worthy of repentance…” Luke 3:7

In Matthew’s Gospel, we are given an even clearer picture of who made up the multitude. In Matthew’s account, this message, or counsel , was given to the “Pharisees and Sadducees” (Matthew 3:7-8).

Obviously, the tax collectors and other sinful people went to John confessing their sins and were baptized by him. The Pharisees and Sadducees had come to John to investigate the phenomenon of multitudes leaving their homes (and synagogues) to hear the preacher in the wilderness! Jesus reveals to us here that these had rejected the “counsel” or “will” of God, and of course had refused to be identified with John in his baptism.

Naturally, when John was praised, The Pharisees and the Sadducees , once again, rejected the “counsel” or “will” of God found in the words of Jesus. To accept the words of praise of John would mean that they have to confess that they had been wrong in their rejection of John in the first place. They could not accept the ministry of John as the one who was forerunner of Jesus, and thus they also had to reject this counsel from Jesus! (At least the Pharisees, Sadducees , Scribes and lawyers were consistent in their unbelief)!

A SHARP REBUKE

The rejection of the Pharisees and the lawyers drew a sharp rebuke from Jesus. As much as He was pleased with the faith of the Gentile Centurion, He was appalled by the contrasting unbelief of the so-called religious leaders in those days. How could these religious leaders reject not just the counsel given to them, when there were so many pieces of evidence or proof laid right before their eyes?

There were the sign-miracles, which they had just seen Jesus perform both for the benefit of the sick and infirm, and for John the Baptiser (Luke 7:21-22). There were the multitudes whose lives must have been deeply touched and changed by what they had heard from John and from Jesus! How could they have rejected the “counsel (or “will”) of God” (Luke 7:30)?

Jesus then sadly said,

“To what then shall I liken the men of this generation,
and what are they like?
They are like children sitting in the marketplace
And calling to one another, saying:
‘We played the flute for you,
And you did not dance;
We mourned to you,
And you did not weep.’ “
Luke 7:31,32

Jesus looked at His generation and compared them to pampered and spoilt children who like to act contrary to their contemporaries. He used the example of a game that children in His days played. This is like a “Simon Says” , or a “Follow the Leader” kind of a game. A leader would call for an action to be complied with. Some of the children would comply (normal response). However, some of the children would be petulant, nasty or even rude. They would refuse to comply. They just like to be contrary. They would reject all that is said to them.

THE REJECTION OF BOTH JOHN AND JESUS

Did John follow the ministry of Jesus with interest? Jesus showed that He too had a deep knowledge of John’s life and ministry. He summarized succinctly the ministry of John, and his subsequent rejection by the Pharisees, and Scribes,

“For John the Baptist came neither eating bread
Nor drinking wine,
And you say, ‘He has a demon.’ ” Luke 7:33

“The Son of Man has come
Eating and drinking,
And you say,
‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber,
A friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ ” Luke 7:34

Their rejection however does not mean that they were right, even though they may be known as “Pharisees and lawyers”. True wisdom is not necessarily found in books of learning. True wisdom is seen in the lives of wisdom’s children! Their rejection revealed that they were not wisdom’s children at all! “Wisdom is justified by all her children” (Luke 7:35).