To what shall I compare the people of this generation?
The people to whom Jesus referred rejected John the Baptist for what they considered to be his excessive austerity and asceticism. Fair enough, extremes are difficult to reconcile with daily life. But then would they not have accepted Jesus who apparently took a more laid back approach? Yet they criticized Jesus for precisely this, calling him a glutton and a drunkard. When one prophet who spoke the truth promoted fasting they condemned him on that basis. When one who spoke the truth promoted feasting it was that to which they objected. One could easily infer that it was impossible to make such people happy.
'We played the flute for you, but you did not dance.
We sang a dirge, but you did not weep.'
The contemporaries of Jesus revealed their bias against him by the way it was impossible to satisfy them. The Church has had a similar history. In ages of excess the Church is condemned for her repressive doctrines. In ages of puritanism the Church is condemned for her excess. But precisely this gives us confidence that she is indeed, as Paul wrote, the "pillar and foundation of truth". Something Chesterton wrote helps explain:
We do not really want a religion that is right where we are right. What we want is a religion that is right where we are wrong.
- GK Chesterton
Did the fact that John took one approach and Jesus another reveal some kind of contradiction between them? Of course it could not. They were doctrines appropriate to what each teacher was trying to accomplish, which were for different stages of the same journey. Fasting made sense to prepare for a feast. And one day fasting would again become a regular part of the rhythm of religious life. It was all relative to the proximity of the bridegroom.
In his analogy about the children in the market we can hear what we perceive to be genuine disappoint from Jesus that the people did not respond to the heavenly melodies both John and himself came to play. There was a real sense that he felt that they had tried everything there was to try but that the people simply refused to respond.
There is, however, another hope for the stubbornness of the hearts of the Pharisees, since "wisdom is vindicated by all her children". Therefore, let us pray to be true children of wisdom who shine as lights in the world, calling all people to make ready for the music of the heavenly dance at a banquet that will never end.
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