3rd Tuesday of Advent (December 16). True wisdom

Prepare to Listen.  Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.
 
Prayerfully Read Matthew 11:16-19
16“But to what will I compare this generation?  It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another,
17‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
    we wailed, and you did not mourn.’
18“For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; 19the 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.”
 
Prayerfully Wonder and Reflect
With what would you compare yourself? … your generation?
 
Jesus came to change everything.  But nothing he said or did changed the minds of his generation.  They were like stubborn children, refusing to dance to wedding music or mourn to funeral music.  They criticized John because he neither ate nor drank with them.  They said he had a demon.  They criticized Jesus because he ate and drank, but with the wrong sort of people—tax collectors and sinners, whom the Jewish rulers avoided.  They accused him of being “a glutton and a drunkard.”
 
Calling Jesus “a glutton and a drunkard” was their way of accusing him of rejecting Moses’ law and therefore deserving death.  In Deuteronomy Moses warned the people to be aware of those who could destroy the nation through their evil ways.  He gave harsh instructions for dealing with a rebellious son.  The parents were to bring such a son to the town elders and say, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious.  He will not obey us.  He is a glutton and a drunkard.”  It’s very likely that Jesus’ accusers were trying to warn the nation that Jesus was “a rebellious son,” who should be dealt with as Moses required—stoned to death to purge evil from their midst.[1]  Jesus expected change, but they didn’t want change.  As a result, they failed to see the vindication of Jesus’ wisdom in how he behaved towards the marginalized, such as “tax collectors and sinners”.  If they’d only looked at Jesus more honestly, they’d have seen wisdom in his deeds.
 
How about yourself?  Who are the ones who welcome all sorts of people in the name of Jesus?  Joining them is wisdom, Jesus’ way.
 
Prayerfully Respond
Lord help me live so that true wisdom is vindicated by what I do.  Amen.
 
Live Obediently.  See and live Jesus’ life-transforming wisdom.
[1] Deuteronomy 21:18-21.