¹⁶ “To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:

¹⁷ “‘We played the pipe for you,
and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge,
and you did not mourn.’

¹⁸ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ ¹⁹ 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 deeds.”

Dear God, I guess that Jesus is saying that they wanted a prophet and a messiah that they could control and that would do what they expected them to. I imagine that “this generation”, to which he referred, included the Pharisees and Sadducees. I like how Jesus points out that he and John couldn’t win with “this generation”. I think he was indicating that it was the messages of both John and Jesus that were making people uncomfortable so they looked for excuses to discredit them.

I went and looked up this passage in The Message translation, and he had an interesting interpretation of the last sentence: “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.” So the way to judge John and Jesus is to look at their overall body of work and not try to dig into the minutia in an effort to discredit their message.

I wonder what kind of body of work people see in me. Can they see you in me through my deeds? Am I someone who is consistent in all areas of my life? At the same time, is my message bold enough that it makes some uncomfortable, or do I water it down so that people will want to hear it. Regarding consistency, I feel good about that part, but I do worry that I might water down what I am trying to say in order to get people to like me.

Father, I submit all of this to you. I submit my parenting to you. I submit my marriage to you. I submit my employment to you. I submit my church life to you. I submit my friendships to you. I submit my extended family relationships with you too. Be glorified in me, and if that means that you have to cause others to stumble over the words that I say, so be it.