THIS GENERATION
Luke 7: 31-35
To what then can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other: ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge and you did not cry.’
"They are like a group of children who complain to their friends, ‘You don’t like it if we play wedding and you don’t like it if we play funeral.’" (Living Bible)
"They’re like spoiled children complaining to their parents, ‘We wanted to skip rope and you were always too tired; we wanted to talk but you were always too busy.’" (The Message, p.135)
They are like a group of spoiled children. Period. Spoiled children need no explaining. We’ve all known someone who’s had some. Maybe you’ve been blessed with some yourself.
The whining. The crying. The foot stamping. The screaming. The Stop, Drop, and Roll drill for which they are trained to respond to only in public and at the sound of the word, "No".
John was the bell and telltale chime of the Ice Cream truck. Jesus is the ice cream man. And in Luke chapter 7 we find him surrounded, in Galilee, by reaching, waving, grabbing, pulling, shoving sticky little hands in the air as one calls out for chocolate and another for strawberry and another for a pop-up and another for star cluster…a butter brickle, a peach charm, a lemon-banana twist…
All Jesus has brought with him - is Chocolate chip.
Oh yes, it’s Deluxe French Chocolate chip.
But that’s just not good enough for the traditionalist who always takes a single dip strawberry cone.
That’s just not good enough for the risk taker who has her heart set on a double dip of cosmopolitan.
It’s just not Chocolate enough for the chocolate lovers, and for the ‘Nilla wafers in the crowd it is polluted with chips of chocolate.
The chunks of chocolate chip are too large, even, for those who enjoy regular chocolate chip. And the vanilla is too genuinely yellow for those who have grown accustomed to bleach white artificially flavored ice cream with absolutely no specks of vanilla bean.
But, I suppose that’s to be expected.
The longer we wait -- The longer we have to dream about it, and imagine -- The more the reality becomes anti-climactic. The Big disappointment—the Big Let-Down.
Some of those U.S. Presidents who are regarded as failures, are remembered that way because of the high tide of expectations that washed them into office. Jackson, Grant, Buchanan, Taft, Harding, Eisenhower, Carter… All pulled back into the sea of historical obscurity by the low tide of reality. For some the office was simply above them. Others discovered that running a country was a lot different than leading an Army. Yet, none of them failed. None of them are what we would call "failures." They just had no intention of doing in office what many imagined they would do. They made hard decisions that were unpopular. In some cases, the challenges of national crises were more than the leadership of one man could overcome in four short years. They were Batman trapped in a plot written for Superman. Batman is fine when you’re facing a mugger in a dark alley, but when gigantic asteroids are plummeting from the sky…
On the other hand, Abraham Lincoln astounds us. He became an American icon. Was he great because he lead the American people through a war? Not necessarily. Many Presidents have guided us through wars –even "World Wars". Was he great because he managed the nation through civil unrest? Maybe. But many national leaders have guided the nation through social conflict.
I suggest that he is remembered as a great president because nobody expected much out of him. He was a third party candidate who won because the Whig party and the Democratic party were split. The news media hounded him. Colleagues ridiculed him.
The extraordinary things he accomplished while president stand alone. We can stand back and appreciate the magnitude of them. But others who came before and after who washed up into the White House on the waves of high public hopes suffer in their legacies because whatever they did, whatever they began, is dwarfed by the backdrop of enormous and many times unrealistic expectations. Their best efforts, their greatest accomplishments, fell far short of the American dream.
The Messiah has come. The Kingdom is unfolding before our eyes! Jesus is here! The blind see! The crippled walk! The deaf hear! The dead are raised!
"Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?" (Luke 7:20)
"Reachy", "grabby", sticky hands pressing in on the Master.
"No matter what was suggested, they did not want to do it; and no matter what was offered, they found fault in it" (Barclay, p.10).
"How shall I describe this generation? With what will I compare them? They are like a group of children playing a game in a public square. They complain to their friends, "We played wedding songs, and you weren’t happy, so we played funeral songs, but you weren’t sad." (NLT)
Expectation. Imagination. They go hand in hand. All winter you dream of summer vacation. The long awaited trip ‘cross country to visit the world’s largest ball of string. You imagine the wind in your hair as you cruise historic route 66. There will be dining in nostalgic diners. Meeting interesting local yokels. New sights and wonders as you see for the first time different parts of the country… soaking in all the great and gorgeous American country-side on your way to the mammoth, gargantuan ball of string—the largest in the world. Month by month the monster ball grows in your mind. As big as a car? Bigger. As big as a house? Bigger. As big as a football stadium? It must be to be listed in the AAA travel guidebook!
Summer vacation begins. At the end of day 1 on deserted Route 66 your left rear tire takes a nail jutting up from the cracks of a neglected highway. As the sun is sinking you feel the sprinkle of rain and hear the rumble of thunder. About a half-mile down the road you see what looks to be a gas station. Three-quarters of a mile later, pressing hard against a torrential downpour you reach the filling station and the orange emblazoned letters that read "Closed." That’s when you remember you forgot to put up the top before you started walking.
On Day 5, as you stand outside your cockroach infested room adjacent to the Motel office, watching as the clerk scrapes the AAA endorsement sticker off the window, a smile stretches across your face. This is the day. This is the day that makes it all worth while.
But a half hour later you find yourself standing before a ball of string – the world’s largest. And suddenly you think to yourself, perhaps there isn’t all that much competition in the world to make the largest ball of string. The mountain sized wonder of the world you had imagined, in truth, rests comfortably in the corner of a small parking lot. As you squish another cup of water from your leather seat while getting into your car to drive home, it occurs to you that expectation is a thief and a liar.
Israel had been dreaming of "summer vacation" for almost 28 generations. The coming of the Messiah meant the restoration of David’s throne. It meant peace and prosperity for all the sons of Abraham. It meant "come uppance" time for all the enemies and oppressors of the Jewish people. And in those generations each one imagined a more glorious coming. The expectations of what the Messiah would be and do became inflated too.
John the Baptist was looking for a final judgment – a King to execute the strictest moral codes, bring justice for the small and vulnerable and punish the unrepentant. "You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath!" (Luke 3:7) "His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire." (Matt.3:12)
The Zealots were hungry for a King like David. One who put human needs at higher place than religious pomp, like when David took the shew bread from the priest to appease his hunger. The king they imagined would be a conquering king who would punish the gentiles in liberating military revolution and then put the pious religious legalists back in their place. A king that was more empowered by the blood of Abraham than Moses’ Law.
The Pharisees were waiting too. Waiting for a philosopher-king. Another Moses in the line of David. A wise, meek, spiritual powerhouse who could wage war for three weeks straight and never break a Sabbath in the process. A king who would pat the guardians of the Law on the back and appoint them to positions of power.
As time moves on in its cruel, relentless march, the sticky, grabbing hands of spoiled children become the clench-fisted hands of spoiled adults…
In the midst of the mob of Luke chapter 7, the wisdom of God is being challenged by the imagined, exaggerated expectations of everyone who wants to have something to say about when, where, how and who will bring the Messianic Kingdom to pass.
The wording of the evangelists lead me to believe that the wisdom of God in using subtle and inward ways to introduce and establish the Kingdom was being questioned. Even if the people did not realize they were questioning God’s wisdom, Jesus saw it. Therefore, He says very matter-of -factly, "we shall see". "Give it time" He is saying. The results will prove God’s wisdom innocent of all charges of negligence, irresponsibility, and unreliability.
Verse 35: But Wisdom is proved right by all her children.
Eugene Peterson, author of the Message, puts it this way:
"Opinion polls don’t count for much do they? The proof of the pudding is in the eating."
But what is God saying to us today through this parable? On this side of the cross, the courtroom is long since vacated. The case has been closed now for some time. God’s wisdom was, indeed, set free and proven innocent by her children, the Church. The Kingdom is now, not coming. The reign of God has touched every continent. Its citizens can be found the world over. That Christ was dealing with rejection rather than reception seems indicated by the analogy of our parable (Pentecost, p.200). It is perhaps here that we can draw correlation without damaging the original message. Christ continues to receive rejection today. Unilateral acceptance of Christ has not come with the advent of the Kingdom of God. Jesus is still the butt of jokes, the cause for debate, and the scapegoat of skeptics and atheists. He remains, after 2,000 years, the favored whipping boy across the globe. Humanists scoff at His spiritual throne and deity. Jewish and Islamic fundamentalists regard him as apostate. And his disciples still get blamed for nearly every Jihad and political conflict.
Today, we still find ourselves looking up to see the market full of children. In this free market place of ideals, men and women continue to accept or disregard Christ based on their own conclusions about God; His involvement with and will for mankind. Some are still looking for an earthly kingdom. They require signs and wonders and a physical king on a throne who can fix the economy and bring peace to the nation, put a chicken in every pot and a car in both garages. But they fail to recognize a Savior who favors a heart to a throne. These people reject Christ because they don’t want a Lord that looks over their shoulders at the bills, or questions what they watch on TV . They aren’t interested in a Savior who demands an expression of forgiveness and justice before He will execute the same for them. They are ready to take their ball and go home because Jesus isn’t the "god" they were looking for.
Yet, as right as that might be, it fails to remember that this parable was not spoken to irreligious people. This parable was given to those in anticipation of fulfillment. This parable was to those standing at the parking gate waiting for Michael Jordan to pass by so they can get a picture or an autograph. These folks were already initiated into their faith, they were just living in expectation of a renewed kingdom promised long ago; watching the horizon for a king to sit on a throne. So, perhaps the message is not necessarily for those outside of Christ who fail to accept Him because He doesn’t match up to their customized profile. Maybe the message is for those who wait. Maybe the message is to those already initiated into faith in God. Maybe it is reminding us that His ways are not our ways. And that in all ways, His wisdom will prove itself in the end.
There are those who insist that the Kingdom of God is only for those whose hair is off the ears and neck. Those who have "separated" themselves, like the Pharisees in holy array such as a white shirt and tie. They cannot accept a Christ who does not enforce the particulars of their sub-culture onto the entire culture. And this is sad, for in so doing they miss the Messiah, just as the Pharisees did, because Jesus is concerned more with a man’s heart than his hair.
And some look to bring about a revolution rather than a revival. They insist that Jesus is a Lord of politics who must reign and enforce morality from the seats of the Senate and the authority of the West Wing. And this is tragic, for they miss the Jesus that resides in the faces of the homeless. They miss the Messiah who changes entire communities one life at a time, beginning first with the physical need and then satisfying the spiritual one.
And some simply cannot tolerate a Christ who is not standing at the ready with thunderbolt in hand to mete out judgment for every mistake…every moral failure…every slip of the tongue…every failed marriage…every abortion….every practice of homosexuality…
And they miss Emanuel who wraps his arms around those who fail and says… "Do you want to be healed?…Do you want to be clean?… Your sins are forgiven…Go and sin no more…"
What has Jesus done…What is he doing…that flies in the face of your expectations –for the world, for the church, in the lives of your brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus?…What has he done… What is he doing that your theology doesn’t allow? Have you taken God to court? Are you challenging the Wisdom of the One who was, and is, and is to come? Were you there when he placed the stars and named them? Did you help Him, in the beginning, to measure the oceans and survey the continents? So why do you add to or take away from His standard of Holiness? Why do you question His wisdom and timing in growing the struggling spirit who is just learning to walk in Grace like a toddler taking his first steps.
In some ways, what was a parable for them, becomes for us an historical lesson. We look back to see that wisdom was indeed exonerated by a growing kingdom that could not have been through force or the means of men. And we see that when we pout and stamp our feet like spoiled children, we miss out on the good times and laughter that comes from conforming joyfully to the will of the Father; allowing Him to be God and take responsibility for His church ---for your life.
The jingle of the ice cream truck is ringing in our ears…
You may have come expecting Butter brickle or a Star Cluster, but if God says Deluxe French Chocolate Chip you can be sure it’s the best. Always. Every time. Give it a chance. Give it time. You will see…
