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When my daughter was one year old, we had a special sort of game we played. If you have young children, you might relate. As I joined her on the floor, I laid on my back. She used her newest superpower (walking) to waddle around the room, screaming with joy and laughing and growling like a little gremlin (which she learned from her Great Uncle Randy). And then her favorite part: She marched toward me with a big smile on her face, and she threw herself onto my stomach. I reacted with an exaggerated “Ohhhh, you got me!” She laughed all the more, stood up, and walked away so that she could do it all over again.
Then playtime ended, and I stood up. When time for dinner, or dishes, or other tasks came, the sweetest baby turned into the saddest. She cried and screamed, and nothing consoled her. Sometimes, she would be finished playing before I needed to get up, and she moved on. But when I did not leave on her terms, she broke down.
With this in mind, listen to Jesus’ words to a crowd in Luke 7:31-35:
“To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’ For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.”
What Children Do
Jesus compares his generation to children wanting others to live life on their terms. The world wants us to conform to its system. When they play happy songs, they want us to obey and dance in jubilation. When they play a sad song, we must sob at their command. He says that his generation acts like children who want nothing but conformity.
Before this passage, Jesus was just talking about John the Baptist, saying that his ministry was rejected by both religious and political systems because he taught the truth as it is, not as they want it to be. He was put in prison and eventually killed.
Jesus himself was the same way. He taught the truth at the cost of worldly acceptance. And he was run out of cities more than once, then eventually killed. When the world sees that we are not responding to their demands, they will cast us out, or trap us in. They will refuse to accept our message, and they will find us guilty of the crime of wisdom, the felony charge of truth. This is not Christian victimism. We need no sympathy for losing worldly friendships or our positions of privilege or power. In fact, that is our reward. When the world is against the Christian, we can rejoice with Peter and the apostles that we are “counted worthy to suffer for the Name” (Acts 5:41).
But I am getting ahead of myself. Before we can understand how to apply this teaching of Jesus, I have to define
“world”.
This Generation
See, Jesus did not use that term here. Instead, he uses the word “generation.” This broadens the scope of his reference to include all who may fit into the description. There were many in that generation who did not call him crazy, many children of wisdom, as he says. But the generation he refers to can be understood as “all those currently living who follow worldly systems, regardless of political or religious affiliations or convictions.”
Modern followers of Christ can be guilty of the same. And many of us are. Today there is just as much division as in the days of Christ. Just as they had Zealots, Essenes, Pharisees, and Sadducees, we have Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, and more, not to mention thousands of denominations of Christianity. Many land on various points on a large spectrum of beliefs about taxes, morals, and government involvement in daily life. So in the same boat with “this generation” Jesus speaks of, we are often guilty of the same things.
Like the Zealots, we resort to rebellions and wars, whether physical or cultural, to force Rome to let go of its power over us. We isolate ourselves like the Essenes from anything in the world to escape its influence while we also forsake our influence over it. Like Pharisees, take ourselves and our morals so seriously that we demand people conform to our way before they meet God. And Again, like Sadducees, we forsake the interests of righteousness by letting the emperor into our pockets, allowing Rome to buy our loyalty, pledging our allegiance to a national deity, elevating Caesar’s influence to the same level as Yahweh, the Lord.
They Are All Children
When I use the term “world” in this post, I refer to those Republican and Democrat and Libertarian (and any party- or non-party-affiliated) Christians who believe their version of Christian power to be the right one; those who believe that their party has the Christian ethic; those who believe that Christ wants anything to do with lording power over others.
Reality check: The Republican Party is not godly. It claims virtue in its stance on abortion and free markets, but it forgets the marginalized and oppressed at the border and in the prison, in the projects and in the home. It is anti-gospel, because it is pro-power.
The Democratic Party is not godly. Claiming to advocate for the marginalized, it promotes the murder of the most voiceless demographic, the unborn. It claims to fight for the rights of the people, while simultaneously expanding its authority over the masses. It is anti-gospel because it is pro-power.
The Libertarian Party is not godly. It aims to defend the rights of all people to have autonomy, undisturbed by the government, free from oppression or state-sanctioned theft. On the other hand, it approves of violence as the means of attaining freedom. Christ has no stake in war. It is anti-gospel, because it is pro-power.
All of these parties reflect the values of children who just want our conformity.
What Do We Do?
This does not mean that Christians are not allowed to endorse or vote for candidates according to their conscience. Nor does it mean there is no room for healthy disagreement (for most of the parties have some incomplete concept of truth and justice). However, anyone who claims to be God’s party has forgotten God’s nature. He has no party and no national allegiance. His Kingdom is all. It is final. It is glorious and good and just. His Kingdom is not of this world, but it is reigning in it, and it is time for us to seek his values above all others. When we do that, we will have voices from every party calling us false teachers, insane, mistaken, arrogant, bigoted, and rebellious. But they did the same to John the Baptist; they did the same to our Lord Jesus.
And no, I don’t know who you should vote for. I don’t know what the solution is to all the injustices in our world. I have more problems today than solutions. But if the people of God ever want to think and act like Heaven, we have to start by opening our arms and putting down our swords. No more isolating, no more demonizing, no more fighting culture wars.
We will lose friendship with the world, but we will gain friendship with God. And we will gain brothers and sisters who are bold and humble, righteous and strong, holy and wise. We will experience in the here and now an eternal family, children of wisdom.
“Wisdom is justified by all her children.”
Footnotes
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