Luke 7: 31-35 The Children In the Marketplace

Luke 7: 31-35 – The Children In the Marketplace
“To what then will I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? 32They are like children sitting in the marketplace 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."

What is happening in this scripture? – Jesus has just sent two of John’s disciples back to John, after they came to him and asked on behalf of their master, the Baptist, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we wait for someone else?” Jesus tells them to tell John what they have seen, the blind, lame and sick healed, and the dead raised. After sending them to John, Jesus turns to the crowd who now is following him pretty much everywhere he travels.

One might ask, why did Jesus stay on the road? Why didn’t he stay put and let people come to him? Perhaps he was recruiting others, to see what he was doing and to join in. Jesus knew the Roman authorities would be after him eventually, and its harder to find a moving target.
So Jesus says, “To what then will I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like?” He compares them to children in the marketplace, calling to one another, whining, actually about each other’s behavior towards the other. They are a people divided, in an occupied land, as they had been so many times before. They were faced with a choice: Follow Caesar, or Follow God. Jesus chastises the Jewish authorities for criticizing anyone who comes from outside the system and excites the people. He says they called John crazy for fasting and abstaining from wine, but then they turn around and criticize Jesus for eating and drinking with the people. Who one ate with, and where they sat said a lot about a person in those days, and to a large degree it still does today.

I find it interesting and intriguing that Jesus tells them they are like children in the marketplace of all places. It is the marketplace that expresses clearly what a people’s priorities are. Whether it be Roman coinage, containing images of Caesar the Divine, or the Temple coinage which had to be exchanged from Roman to Jewish, at a profit, for sacrifices and fees, the process of currency and what it represented was a concrete expression of the systems in charge.

Jesus ends his confrontation with Nevertheless, Wisdom is vindicated by all her children. In Proverbs, wisdom is called Sophia, and is present along side God at the very creation of the earth. This statement from Jesus seems to say that regardless of the criticisms both John and he received, the truth would ultimately be revealed by the days to come. God’s justice over Caesar’s power would not be denied.

How is this happening in the world today? – Where is the marketplace of our world today? Who are those like whining children, criticizing any outsider who bucks against the system? How are we a people divided, and who are our occupiers? How do we worship and follow Caesar? How are we following God? What is the wisdom, crying out to be heard? Who are wisdom’s children in our world, and will they be vindicated?

How is this story my story? – Like the disciples of John, do I still wait for the Messiah, or do I see his healing reality already happening? Like the children in the marketplace, do I cry out for others to dance to my tune, or complain when others do not weep with my private pain? Is it about me, Lord? That’s how I act. Or is it about your kingdom, which includes all of us? I somehow know, deep inside, that wisdom will be vindicated by her children. The day will come. Perhaps it is already here.

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