Wisdom’s Vindication

Invocation

Eternal God,

In the reading of the Scripture, may your Word be heard;

In the meditations of our hearts, may your Word be known;

And in the faithfulness of our lives, may your Word be shown. AMEN.

Scripture Reading

Matthew 11:16–19 NRSVue

“But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’ “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, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”

Introduction

The Joyless Farmer

A farmer had a neighbor, a constant complainer, a wet blanket in the linen closet of life. The farmer decided to impress this man for once, so he bought the world's greatest hunting dog, trained it thoroughly, and invited his joyless friend to go hunting. From the blind the farmer shot a duck, which landed in the middle of the pond. Upon command, the dog trotted out, walked on the surface of the water, retrieved the bird, and dropped him at the feet of his master. "What do you think of that?" the farmer challenged his neighbor. To which his friend responded, "Your dog can't swim, can he?"

Sadly, when I read that the first time, if I’m being honest, when I first read the story, I thought the cranky neighbor was a Presbyterian…

How does the world perceive us?

How much time, energy and effort do we put in to controlling how people percieve us?

What does any of that have to do with our Spiritual Walk?

And what does it have to say on this Fourth of July weekend about Freedom?

Biblical Exegesis

The Lead Up

John’s second thoughts

John the Baptist, who had previously said that he wasn’t even worthy to untie Jesus’ sandal, is suddenly sounding a little bit doubtful.

Admittedly, he’s in prison for speaking truth to power, so we’ll forgive him a little bit of mental anguish and questioning.

He sends his disciples to Jesus to say “Are you the one we’ve been waiting for?”

Jesus sends them back saying “Matthew 11:4–5 “Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with a skin disease are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.”

Jesus speaks very highly of John

It’s clear that Jesus has a very high view of John.

He was one of Jesus’ mentors along the way to becoming this Rabbi.

He even says, if we’re willing to accept it, that John is the second coming of Elijah, who would point the way to the Messiah.

High praise!

But…

It’s becoming clear that they’re two very different people.

Jesus and John

John the ascetic.

He and his disciples are frequent fasters.

He is pretty simple in his dress.

Camel hair robes…

Just imagine wearing a camel hair robe out there today!?!

I don’t think that’s very enjoyable!

Locusts and honey?

Not a gourmet meal!

John comes from the ascetic tradition.

Deny all the worldly pleasures in an effort to connect to the spiritual, to find your way to commune with God.

A lot of folks today still fall into this camp, this way of approaching their walk.

Jesus the party guy!

Jesus first miracle is to turn water into wine.

At a wedding, where apparently they’ve been partying so hard they’ve already run out of wine.

That’s quite the wedding!

Jesus was hanging out with the wrong people, according to his critics.

The tax collectors-

Remember that these guys were authorized by Rome to go and collect a certain amount of taxes from the citizens.

Except the citizens didn’t know how much Rome was charging.

They didn’t have Turbo Tax.

So if Caesar said “They all owe 10%,” the tax collector could show up at your door with two centurions and spears and say “That’ll be 20% please!”

They were the definition of a universally hated profession.

And Jesus hangs out with them enough to be credibly accused of being their friend.

The sinners.

Sinner is a unique category in Isreal.

They would have understood that all of us sin, we all fall short of God’s desires for us.

So to be labeled a “sinner” in the society was someone who either…

…couldn’t afford to go to the temple and make a sacrifice to get right with God, or…

…didn’t want to.

Again, people on the outside looking in on the religious establishment.

And Jesus calls these people his friends.

He doesn’t spend all of his time with the extremely religious and well to-do people.

In fact, those folks seem to annoy him a good bit.

He spends his time with the people who everyone else has written off.

What are you looking for?

This is a reasonable question to ask ourselves every now and again.

Jesus frames it with a bit of a parable.

Children in a marketplace

We wailed, but you did not mourn.

John’s ascetic approach was right there in front of you.

He was denying worldly pleasures.

He was focusing everything on the spiritual side of life.

He was trying to teach you to do the same.

But…it just didn’t do anything in your soul.

Like, you came to the worship service, but didn’t really get anything out of it?

That kind of thing.

How tragic!

We played the flute, but you didn’t dance.

Jesus totally flips the script on John’s approach.

Ok, let’s party!

Let’s drink in all that this life has to offer.

Let’s reach out to the party people, even when no one else wants to be around with them.

And still…it does nothing to stir their soul.

How do you know that neither Jesus or John were able to stir up these people’s souls?

They start fighting about who’s right

Actually, more tellingly that the soul isn’t a part of it, they actually started arguing about who was more wrong, rather than who was right.

One camp says that John and all of his ascetic ways is so off his rocker, that he clearly has a demon.

Another camp shows up and says that Jesus was intolerable as a drunkard and a glutton.

For the record, I think this is one of the fastest ways to see that your soul isn’t really in the argument…

When you are spending more time pointing out what’s wrong with your opponent, whoever your opponent is, rather than spending time advocating for what’s beautiful and wonderful about your position, then I don’t really think your soul is engaged in that at all.

Good thing Jesus sorted this all out back then…and we don’t struggle with any of that today…

Wisdom and her deeds

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!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.””

When I was a boy, my dad always used to say “Actions speak louder than words.”

I think that’s in the Dad Handbook they gave us when we become fathers, because just about every dad says it.

It means that if you want to tell me what’s important to you, don’t use your words.

Show me.

This is essentially what Jesus is saying here.

You’re not sure which path is right? John or me?

Well, wisdom will be vindicated by her deeds.

I’ll go ahead and let my actions do the talking for me.

And to his great credit, here we are north of 2,000 years later still listening to Jesus and trying our best to follow in his way, so I think those actions had a lot to say.

The wisdom of Jesus was indeed vindicated by his deeds.

And so I wonder…

What this tells us about Jesus

Jesus wanted to enjoy this creation

In our Book of Confessions, we have the Shorter Catechism.

It opens with this question: What is the chief end of man (humanity)?

Essentially, they open their confession with “What’s the meaning of life?”

And truth be told, they have a pretty great answer:

“Our chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”

I worry a little bit that we emphasize the first part, and forget the second.

That we do a great job in our worship, in our personal devotion, in our own lives to try to glorify God.

But to enjoy God?

To enjoy the creation God gave us?

To wonder at the creation?

To behold it?

That’s tricky!

But it’s what Jesus did exactly!

When you read these verses today, the accusations that his opponents are throwing at him, it really sounds like the Word was made flesh, and when he moved in to the neighborhood, he wanted to enjoy his creation as much as possible.

Enjoy the wine that is made from the fruit of the vine.

Enjoy the people that God has created, even when no one else will.

Enjoy the company of his friends.

Enjoy life.

This weekend, I had an experience I hope the rest of you had as well.

Yesterday I drove up north and had a cookout with my band from college.

These were friends that I haven’t seen in some cases for a few years.

And we had food, and we had drinks, and we told stories, and we had ridiculous adventures on a slip-n-slide.

And more than a few times I just kind of leaned back and soaked it all in.

God gave me all of this.

The friends.

The food.

The drink.

The jokes.

The water for the slip-n-slide.

And so I thanked God a few times yesterday for allowing and even encouraging me to enjoy what God had made.

Of course, we have to be responsible to an extent.

We should enjoy the resources of the earth, but when it turns in to abuse we start to see the damaging affects of climate change.

We should enjoy the fruit of the vine, but if it leads us to a place where we are causing more pain than joy, we’re off the path.

We should enjoy the relationships with our friends, but if we start to take advantage of who they are as a child of God, then our relationships will ring exceptionally hollow.

But still, the gifts that God has given us are meant to be enjoyed, and we should drink deeply of this life’s joys.

Jesus wasn’t worried about appearances

I think this ability to be so unworried about how he appeared to others was deeply rooted in Christ’s knowledge of who he is.

Way back when John and Jesus were just getting going together, Jesus is baptized by John.

And when he comes out of the water, he hears the voice of the Father over him.

This is my son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.

If you know that’s true, it gets to be a lot easier to not care what other people have to think about you, doesn’t it?

When you know deep in your bones that you are a daughter of God, a son of God, a sibling of Christ, then you really don’t mind what other people think of you.

When you know deep in your bones that you are the beloved of God, that God actually loves and cares for you very deeply, then you don’t have to spend so much time chasing other people’s affection, do you?

When you know that God is well pleased with you and who God has created you to be, then what else do you need to prove?

One of my favorite theologians, Karl Barth, put it this way in a sermon once:

Who are you? Who am I? The answer is: one whom God holds by his right hand, on whose heart and lips God has laid the confession of faithfulness and the great comfort: (when God says) Nevertheless I am continually with thee.

This is true freedom

Jesus has this great line in John’s gospel:

John 8:32 “and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.””

John 8:36 “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.”

As we continue to celebrate as a nation our freedom, which is all well and good, we should.

But I hope that in all that discussion of freedom in a national and political sense, that we remember the freedom we are offered in Christ.

The truth brings us freedom.

The truth is that you are loved by God.

The truth is that you are someone with whom God is well pleased.

The truth is that you are a child of God, right as you are.

And all of that truth has the ability to set us free.

I don’t know about you, but I think it’s exhausting to keep up an appearance that isn’t true to who I am.

But that freedom of being who Christ has called and created me to be?

That’s a freedom worth celebrating.

May You…

May you be taken over by joy.

May you take some time even today, to enjoy the gifts that God has given to us.

May you drink deeply of the gifts of God’s good creation.

May you not be worried what others have to think of you, because you know that God has called you a child, beloved, and someone with whom God is well pleased.

May you dance to the song of the flute in the market place, because you have found your freedom in Christ.

And may wisdom be vindicated in her deeds, with a life well lived.