A Generation of Spoiled Children
Matthew 11:16-30
Have you ever tried to please a group of children by suggesting they all pick out just one game or one activity to do together? Some of you may be dealing with this as part of your daily life and others may have to go back to your babysitting days.
One of the best definitions of this kind of frustrating situation is that “it’s like trying to herd a group of cats”
I mean just one cat is a real handful but try controlling or directing three or more and you quickly realize the futility of your efforts.
This was the frustration that Jesus faced as He tried to reveal Himself to the Jewish people during His ministry. It seemed that no matter what He did the Jewish religious leaders wanted nothing to do with Him.
This is why Jesus gave us the parable we look at today in Matthew 11.
Jesus likened them to little children playing in the street who cried out to their playmates “come and dance, we will play a song for you and we can all be happy together, come and play funeral with us and we will give everyone a part and we can all be sad together”. (Paraphrase mine)
Matthew 11:16-17
Then Jesus goes on to explain exactly what He means. Jesus explains to them how they are unwilling to accept or recognize or embrace the fact that they are living at a time when God the Father is presenting the Messiah to them.
Jesus reminds them of who John the Baptist was and how he acted and what John preached. It was in fact a direct quote out of their own Old Testament.
Isaiah 40:3
A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God."
What Jesus was saying is that John the Baptist is the Prophet God sent into the wilderness to call you all to repentance. You should have known this; but you ignored him and instead of acting on John’s message you say he has a demon and you turned away like a bunch of spoiled children because you did not want to participate in the serious call to repentance that John the Baptist was crying out with. The message was from God the Father. He told you to be ready for it.
And then it gets even worse for those listening as Jesus goes on to repeat the things they were saying about Him.
” The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.” Matthew 11:19
Jesus is saying you liken me to someone who is the lowest of the low in every respect yet those of you who are truly wise children can tell from the deeds I have done and am doing that I am the real deal – the Messiah not some drunk or glutton who hangs around the rift-raft.
Friends we are living at a time that is comparable to how the Jewish nation responded to Jesus. Many of us want to accept God on our own terms rather than on His terms. We want to rewrite scripture to suit ourselves rather than change our selves to conform to scripture.
Our society in 2017 is acting like a bunch of spoiled children who want the things of God their own way. We want to determine what a sin is and what is not. We want to determine how we are saved and we want to do it by ourselves.
As a church body of believers separated to God we have rejected God’s call to repentance collectively just as Israel as a nation has rejected Jesus as Messiah. We have gotten comfortable with our sin. So much so we don’t even call it sin anymore.
This moment in the life of Jesus ministry among His people was a pivotal moment.
All this time Jesus was holding Himself out as the Redeemer and Savior of their nation the Messiah come for them, but now He would reject them for having rejected Him so openly and blatantly. Dear brothers and sisters are we not living at a time when those of us in the Christian church are also displaying this same attitude to Christ?
Haven’t we all designed our own theology instead of following the simple message of salvation that Jesus offers us?
Friends there will be consequences for such behavior. How many of you can remember those words from your Mothers lips “wait till your Father gets home”?
Well Saints all I can tell you is that our Heavenly Father is about to visit us in a way many of us are not prepared for. We will have to give an account for our behavior.
I’m not trying to give you a guilt trip just a timely warning. These are Jesus words not mine. Get right with God.
Jesus told the crowd that day that the cities in which He had done so many miracles would be held accountable for how they reacted to Him.
Jesus compares their lack of faith and unbelief to that of Tyre and Sidon. Those cities were once some of the wealthiest in the world until they were finally destroyed by Alexander the Great in 315 B.C. They also tried to force Baal worship on the nation of Israel until God removed Queen Jezebel. She was thrown from a window by her own people and dogs consumed her body. Those cities never rose again to such wealth and religious prominence.
People today are trusting in their wealth, in the things of this world to save them but it is useless for salvation. Many of our large cities suggest a religious morality that is contrary to the Bible just as Tyre and Sidon did.
Jesus even goes so far to compare His own ministry headquarters Capernaum to the infamy of Sodom. Jesus warns them that just because His ministry is headquartered there does not make them pious enough to escape judgement.
Just think of the great seats of religious authority today, the cities that harbor them. No our salvation is not about our geographic location to a religious city. It is about out spiritual location to Jesus. We need to become the “little children” of our Heavenly Father not the spoiled children of this world.
“I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26 Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do. Matthew 11:25-26
Lay the burden of your sins upon Jesus and find rest for your souls.
Amen.
