Friday in the Second Week of Advent, December 10, 2021

Matthew 11:16-19

Jesus said to the crowds: “To what shall I compare this generation? It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said, ‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is vindicated by her works.”

“To what shall I compare this generation?”  Although the Lord does particularly mean this for the Jews to whom he preached, he also means it for all the people who have lived since the time of his coming upon the earth.  He has been and will continue to be very censorious of “this generation”, as when he characterizes it as “an evil and adulterous generation [that] seeks for a sign” (Matthew 16, 4).  He speaks this way not to raise himself above the crowd but to induce introspection and repentance.

“Jesus said to the crowds: “It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another.”  The Lord talks to the people in simple terms using everyday examples.  He is not like the Pharisees who prefer to answer questions with obscure quotations from the Scriptures or with twisted reasoning.  “We played the flute for you, but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.”  St. Matthew preserves the words of this ancient children’s game by quoting the Lord, who uses them for his purpose.  The gist of his meaning is that the people have expectations for him that are contrary to his true mission and so they are annoyed with him.    He reminds them that the Messiah will take orders from no human.  In fact, so repugnant to him were the common beliefs about the Messiah that he did not identify himself in this way except once: to the high priest on the night before his Death.  “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’ ”  Although many people followed John and a certain number of them had thought that he was the Messiah, we see here that he was not universally respected.  His austere lifestyle was also seen as evidence of demonic possession.  “The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said, ‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ ”  The crowd does not know what it wants, and so he aptly compares them to children.  “But wisdom is vindicated by her works.”. That is, Wisdom is justified by her works.  One of his meanings is that in order to perform his miracles and in order to convert sinners, he must enter fully into the lives of the people.  He eats with sinners in order to draw them back to God.  He goes into homes in order to raise people from their sickbeds. But he also means that the Son of God enters fully into human life in order to die for the sins of the world.  He must become one of us and so he joins us in every part of our lives, from his Birth, his growing up, and his enduring rejection as well as achieving success.  He makes friends and experiences betrayal.  Finally, he enters our death.  

As the Lord and John the Baptist were criticized, so is every saint who has walked the earth, and many have been killed.  Let us not fear criticism for our belief in the Lord Jesus but humbly carry out his holy will in our lives.