2nd Thursday of Lent (March 20). WISDOM IS VINDICATED BY ALL HER CHILDREN

Prepare to Listen.  Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me!
 
Prayerfully Read Luke 7:28-35
28I tell you, among those born of women no one is greater than John; yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.’ 29(And all the people who heard this, including the tax-collectors, acknowledged the justice of God, because they had been baptized with John’s baptism.  30But by refusing to be baptized by him, the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves.)  31‘To what then will I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like?  32They are like children sitting in the market-place and calling to one another,
“We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
   we wailed, and you did not weep.”
33For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, “He has a demon”; 34the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners!”  35Nevertheless, wisdom is vindicated by all her children.’
 
Prayerfully Wonder and Reflect
With what would you compare your generation or yourself?
 
Jesus compared his generation, especially the Pharisees and lawyers, to apathetic, bored children who refused to be satisfied.  Play happy music, they won’t dance; sad music, they won’t mourn.  They rejected  Jesus because he ate and drank with outcasts, and John the Baptizer because he ate and drank alone.  Jesus was sociable and they said he was a glutton and drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.  John avoided society and they said he had a demon.  They were apathetic, bored children, refusing to dance to wedding music or mourn to funeral music.
 
Jesus ate with “tax collectors and sinners” because they welcomed him.  The Pharisees and lawyers didn’t, rejecting his compassionate ways.  People in positions of power are often neglectful of the weak and needy who are unable to support themselves.  Not Jesus.  He came to bring down the powerful from their thrones and lift up the lowly, fill the hungry with good things and send the rich away empty.[1]  By rejecting Jesus, the Pharisees and lawyers assured their downfall, as Jesus warned in an ambiguous quote:[2] “Nevertheless, wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”  He probably meant that his wisdom was vindicated because “his children,” were those who needed compassion—the outcasts, the poor, the weak, the needy.  In other words, the fact that Jesus was accused of being a friend of tax collectors and sinners, authenticated his wisdom and rightness.  It will authenticate our wisdom too.
 
What challenged or surprised you in Jesus’ teaching about wisdom?
 
Prayerfully Respond
Jesus, you never put your reputation ahead of helping those in need, befriending and including those the religious rulers excluded.  Help me today to have courage to live your inclusive wisdom.  Amen.
 
Live obediently.  Choose the way of Jesus’ wisdom, helping the needy.
[1] Luke 1:52-53.  [2] It’s unclear where this saying comes from.