Minutes to Memories

Will and Jaxon after Bible classes tonight

I don't think I did a very good job teaching class tonight, but I liked my topic anyway. We're going through the Parables of Jesus one at a time, and tonight we did the little-known parable of the "Children in the Marketplace" from Luke 7.

My interpretation is that Jesus compared the people of that generation to a group of kids complaining to other kids that they weren't acting the way they wanted them to act. And in the punchline, the "kids" they're complaining about are John the Baptizer and Jesus of Nazareth.

On one hand, John was far too serious for their tastes and didn't dance to their flute songs. On the other hand, Jesus was too much of a party guy in their estimation and didn't appreciate their funeral songs. But Jesus seems to make the point that these "childish" folks just didn't get it: the lives of both John the Baptizer and Jesus of Nazareth go together and have compatible messages. The wise will notice what made John cry and Jesus party - it's the same thing.

My intended application was to ask what we should cry for, as well as what should cause us to dance, though I didn't really acccomplish my task very well.

I did try to point out from earlier in Luke that John's hell fire and brimstone sermon had as its altar call the call to quit oppressing people and start having compassion. The lack of this very thing seemed to be what made John cry.

And I also atttempted to note that in Luke 7, when John's disciples asked on John's behalf if he was THE ONE that Jesus replied, ""Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them." This seemed to be what made Jesus dance.

And so I wonder today if we are more like the complaining kids or the wise? Do we cry for the same things that made John (and Jesus) cry? Do we dance for the same things that made Jesus (and John) dance?

In other words, are we concerned with the blind and lame, the deaf and the modern-day lepers, those condemned to death and those relegated to debilitating poverty? Do we cry at their conditions? Do we celebrate our opportunities to rescue those we can rescue?

Or... are we more apt to criticize God for not responding the way we'd like him to respond?

I think it's worth thinking about...