A, Post-Pentecost 6 Proper 9 - Matthew 11:15–19, 25–30 "No Need - Know Need"
Boastful big-mouthed immature children, call out and scoff at those
passing by. They are obnoxious youths,
who have no need. They do not
listen. Therefore, they do not hear! They are children who do not know what they
want! They don’t want to mourn, nor do
they want to rejoice! Nothing is good
enough for them! They mock and scoff at
those who mourn, as well as those who celebrate. These are the children Jesus compares to the
generation around him.
Jesus likens those who reject John the Baptist as children who do not
mourn at the singing of his dirge, at his call to repentance before the coming
of the kingdom. He quotes Malachi and
follows it up, saying, “‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who
will prepare your way before you.’
Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one
greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of
heaven is greater than he. He who has
ears to hear, let him hear.” (Matthew 11:10–11, 15 ESV)
The children who reject John the Baptist have no need for the
past. They do not need the law to call
them to repentance, nor do they need a prophet to expose their need for a
saviour! They need neither Elijah nor
John the Baptist. As they scoff, “He
has a demon”, they have no ears with which to hear. They languish, with a bad spirit, because
they do not listen.
Jesus speaks of this generation like children in a town’s public
marketplace. He also addresses himself
as a child too! He calls himself the Son
of Man! A son, a servant of those in the
public place.
Despite the shaming of those mocking him in
public, Jesus declares, “The Son of
Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a
drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by
her deeds.” (Matthew 11:19 ESV)
Jesus is not only the Son of God and Servant Son of Man, but he is
also the Wisdom of God, personified, in flesh, and Wisdom is justified by her
deeds.
Some of the ancient manuscripts do not say “deeds”. Rather, they say, “Yet wisdom is justified
by her children.” This is the same
as what Jesus says in the parallel account in Luke seven chapter
thirty-five. Therefore, the Wisdom of
Jesus Christ is justified in the children produced.
So, who are these obnoxious children in the marketplace? The children that chide and scoff are not
those from the outer but rather from within the town centre. They are those who should have ears to hear,
to have received the Wisdom of God, through hearing what has been taught to
them. Rather than having no need for the
Word from John the Baptist and Jesus, they should have listened as those who
knew they needed a Saviour.
They should have known what Paul reports, “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under
the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held
accountable to God.” (Romans 3:19
ESV)
But the mouths of the children were not stopped by the Law, they did
not receive a knowledge of sin.
Therefore, they boastfully block off their ears having no need for
salvation. Without knowledge of sin,
they did not know they needed to stop their mouths, and hear with their ears,
to receive the Word of Life!
We are the generation to which he says these things. Jesus speaks to every generation. He is the New Adam, the Servant Son of Man to
all children of Adam.
Like Paul, we are called to a knowledge of sin, having had our mouths
stopped, and our ears opened. We know
we need! We know nothing good dwells
in us. Our sin makes us tired and heavy
burdened, often leading us to dis-ease with God and therefore, disease. We are debased and cry out, “Wretched man
that I am! Who will deliver me from this
body of death?” (Romans 7:24 ESV)
Such is the reality of all recreated from Adam!
God peels back the layers of our blindness to sin; he repeatedly stops
our boasting. He replaces it with Holy
Spirited repentance. In our knowledge of
sin, we know our need. As God the Holy
Spirit reveals the depth of our sin, peeling and re-peeling us, he shows us the
eternal magnitude of Jesus’ generosity and forgiveness.
Even the children chiding and scoffing in the marketplace are offered
a new place under Jesus’ forgiveness.
This is the Wisdom of God, justified in Jesus Christ, and him
alone. All people need Jesus Christ,
some know, and some don’t want to know and say “no”. He takes the depraved children who know their
need, burdened and heavy laden with sin and gives them the yoke of forgiveness
and rest in the promise of his Word!
We are the children in the marketplace. But unlike us, the Son of Man is the Son of
God who is not haughty nor hollow. He is
meek without being weak. He is humble
and serves all people in his fulness as the Son of God, but he does it in
humility.
Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit.
We who allow the Holy Spirit to remain within, allow him to stop the
unruly child within, recreating us as the children of God. Therefore, as God’s children, with the Holy
Spirit within, we know we need and have received our Saviour Jesus Christ!
Jesus declared, “I thank you,
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the
wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.”
(Matthew 11:25–26 ESV)
We once, boastful children, have been stopped and given the Holy
Spirit. We are the little children of
God! Literally, we become non-speakers,
as opposed to the brash foolish bad-mouthed babblers we once were. As non-speakers, we become hearers of the Word
in the Holy Spirit. This is God’s will
and his good pleasure.
As children of God our ears are opened, and our mouths are shut. Our mouths open only to receive the body and
blood of Jesus Christ and tell others of our forgiveness. We are the body of Jesus Christ! As his body under the headship of Jesus
Christ we are the Wisdom of God for the whole world, as we remain in his Word.
The wisdom bestowed upon us, gathers us as the faithfully receiving
church of God. The church is the new
bride of the New Adam being born from his side.
Not like Eve, who was created from Adam’s side with his bone and
flesh. But the church is the
justification of Jesus’ death at the cross.
From the cross, the Wisdom of God flowed as water and blood from the
side of the New Adam, Jesus Christ.
The church, the faithful body of Christ, is the new woman, created by
water and the Word, and sustained with the blood and body of Jesus Christ, as
his body of Wisdom in Christ. In Christ
the church gives life to those the Holy Spirit calls through his Word and
sustains with the sacraments.
When the church uses things other than Jesus Christ and remaining
receptive to his Word, the church loses its wisdom in Jesus Christ, and she
soon finds herself turning away from God’s Word in worldly pursuits of good and
evil. Confused at best, she returns to
join the children in the public marketplace pursuing the popular opinion of
folly and foolishness.
But the church remains wise, she remains Christ’s bride, when she
allows the Holy Spirit to return her to the knowledge and forgiveness of sin in
Jesus Christ, the Word of God in flesh.
Jesus says, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Amen.
