The Justification Of Wisdom

“THE JUSTIFICATION OF WISDOM”

Luke 7:29-35

Introduction

No one wants to think that they are foolish or unwise. When adults are asked to rate their level of intelligence, most of them believe they are of above average intelligence. Of course, mathematics and statistics prove that, on average, half of adults must have below average intelligence. Therefore, some of these people are seriously mistaken about how they perceive themselves.

People want to believe they are wise, or at least smarter than most of the rest of us. However, people are not always as wise as they think. There is a story, which may or may not be true, that helps to illustrate that people tend to think more highly of themselves than they probably ought to believe. This story is about a medical doctor who immigrated to America from a foreign land. This doctor could not find a job in an American hospital, so he opened a clinic and put a sign outside that read,

“GET TREATMENT FOR $20. IF NOT CURED, GET $100 BACK.”

A lawyer thought this might be an easy to make a quick $100, so he goes to the clinic. The lawyer tells the doctor, “I have lost my sense of taste.” The doctor says to his nurse, “Bring medicine from vial No. 22, and put 3 drops in the patient's mouth.” After tasting the liquid, the lawyer gasps, “Ugh! That’s kerosene!” The doctor answers, “Congratulations, your sense of taste is restored. Give me $20.”

Angered at this turn of events, the lawyer goes back after a few days to try to recover his money. The lawyer complains, “I have lost my memory. I can’t remember anything.” The doctor says to his nurse, “Bring medicine from vial No. 22, and put 3 drops in the patient's mouth.” The lawyer protests, “That's kerosene! You gave that to me last time I was here to restore my taste.” The doctor answers, “Congratulations, you got your memory back. Give me $20.”

The lawyer, who now wants revenge, pays the doctor, and decides to come back a week later determined to get the $100. The lawyer tells the doctor, “My eyesight has become very weak. I can't see at all.” The doctor responds, “Well, I don't have any medicine for that, so take this $100 dollar bill.” The lawyer stares at the banknote and protests, “But this isn't a $100 dollar bill. It's a $20 dollar bill.” The doctor answers, “Congratulations, your eyesight is restored. Give me $20.”

This story shows us that sometimes people are not as smart, wise, or as honest, as they think they are.

Understanding Wisdom

In order to be wise, we first to understand what wisdom is, and then we need to know how to act wisely in our lives. Jesus made an interesting statement concerning wisdom. Jesus said, “Wisdom is justified of all her children.” (Luke 7:35) By saying this, Jesus was teaching people that wisdom proves itself by what it produces.

In the Greek language, the word for wisdom is “"sophia.” This is the word where we get the girl's name, Sophia. Given that knowledge about names, a wise person needs to be mindful when naming their children. Our children might take on the meaning of their names to characterize their lives. For our daughters’ names, Sophia would be a wise choice.

One way that wisdom can be described is to call it applied knowledge. If a person knows something to be true, then that person is wise when they apply that particular truth to their lives. If you know that a stove is hot, then the wise thing would be not to touch it, and thus avoid burning yourself.

Foolishness is the opposite of wisdom. Foolishness is when a person knows something is true; but, then they do not apply it to their life, and thus get burned. A lot of people get burned again and again by doing the same harmful things over and over, rather than learning from their mistakes and changing their behaviors. A person constantly getting burned seems rather foolish.

And so, we now turn to the passage of Scripture where Jesus said, “Wisdom is justified of all her children.” The knowledgeable thing to do would be to put Jesus’ saying into the context of the Bible story that He was experiencing. When we put Jesus’ words into the context of its Bible story, we will discover the reason why Jesus made this statement was because of what was happening to Him in His life. Then, we can take that knowledge about Jesus, His life, and His teachings, and apply it to our lives. This would be the wise thing to do.

We learn from the Gospel of Luke that Jesus faced opposition from two groups of people, the Pharisees and teachers of the law. These people verbally attacked both Jesus Christ and John the Baptist. They did this because they had rejected God’s purpose for them lives.