'We played the flute for you,
and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge
and you did not mourn.'
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.' The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners." ' But wisdom is proved right by her actions."and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge
and you did not mourn.'
I love how Jesus just gets right to the heart of things. The pharisees (of both then and now) keep a checklist of rules -things we do and things we don't do. Emotions don't play a big part in rule keeping. Relationship doesn't play a big part in rule keeping. And anyone who steps a little to the right or to the left of the rules is judged harshly.
The rule-keepers judged John, whom Jesus said was the greatest person ever born of woman -they said he was too extreme. At the same time they judged Jesus Himself -they said He was too extreme in the other direction. I believe that the average Evangelical church-goer would still judge John and Jesus in exactly the same ways. We pretend we wouldn't, but we would. They would make us nervous and uncomfortable.
To this Jesus responds, "Wisdom is proved right by her actions." In another place Jesus says a similar thought: "By their fruit you will know them." Rule keeping apart from relationship produces dead fruit. On the other hand, true relationship with Father produces good spiritual fruit: love. joy, peace, kindness, self-control, etc. without our actually trying.
That's not to say that God's laws were or are wrong; it's just that we can't keep His commands by focusing on the law and trying to keep it. Instead, we end up fulfilling God's desires for us by whole-heartedly pursuing intimacy with Father through the death and resurrection of Jesus as we respond to the inner-promptings of the Holy Spirit. Relationship. God's idea.
Thoughts: while the Pharisees were bound by legalism, the true point of conflict between them and Jesus was almost exclusively hypocrisy. They were constantly promoting their own righteousness. They were prideful - to busy looking at themselves to even have a chance to see Jesus. Praying big, fancy prayers in public. Spiritual showboating. Doing most of what they did for the glory and honor of men. If there had been Facebook in their day, who knows what types of nonsense they would have been posting! In light of this, perhaps their "expressed intention" to follow the law was their "best attribute".
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