Matthew 11:16-19

THE PORTRAIT OF AN AGE

‘Whereunto shall I liken this generation?… Wisdom is justified of her children?’

Matthew 11:16

The portrait of an age—that and nothing less is what is essayed in these sentences.

I. Christ’s indictment of His age.—It is set forth with transcendent skill. A simple incident, familiar in the town-life of the period, is fastened upon by the Master, His quick perceptions suggesting to Him its aptness for His purpose. In later life how hard is it to take seriously the dignified mummeries and solemn ceremonial with which the world seeks to disguise its hollowness! The child, with his clear soul and true-hearted simplicity, is often very much in earnest when at play; in the professedly serious work of the grown-up actors on life’s stage there is as often a great deal of half-conscious make-believe. And it has happened more than once in the course of history that a nation has become infected with a profound unreality. Its spiritual life has been poisoned at the fountain, and has exhausted itself in all kinds of hypocrisy and falsehood. Such was the age which Christ arraigned at the bar of judgment.

II. How was it made good?— What instances did the Speaker adduce in proof of so grave a charge? In truth, for evidence in point, He had not far to seek. There were two messengers of righteousness whose treatment by that generation had been such as to invite the parable they had heard. The one, an ascetic, summoned the nation to an immediate and complete change. Wedded to its own evil life, it found the rule of the prophet of the wilderness was not after its mind, and hastened to record its sentence upon him—‘ He hath a devil!’ The other was in habit and appearance a marked contrast to His great forerunner. He entered with ingenuous zest into the social enjoyments of the day, and lived, in outward things, much as others did. Surely they would approve this gentle Exemplar of humanity. Not so! With brutal exaggeration they cry, ‘ Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber; a friend of publicans and sinners!’

III. The ultimate appeal in all such loss.—The expression ‘ and wisdom was justified by her children’ (St. Luke 7:35 has ‘of all her children’) is susceptible of an easy interpretation, and the reference to the classes of people (St. Luke 7:23) who accepted Christ’s teaching after they had accepted John’s, is manifest. In this case the phrase ‘was justified’ is clearly to be taken as meaning much the same as the negative one in Matthew 11:6—‘Shall find none occasion of stumbling.’ This application involves the appropriation of the term ‘wisdom’ to Himself. That is to say, He was the highest or most immediate embodiment of Divine wisdom. But when we have to convert ‘children’ into ‘works,’ a difficulty arises. There are some of course who would restore the identity of meaning in the two passages by understanding ‘works’ as a figurative term for ‘children,’ or vice versâ; either of these in itself a sense not very unlikely, and certainly by no means impossible. The context, however, must have some consideration, and in this case it has a special claim to attention, for Matthew 11:2 also speaks of ‘works’ as being the cause of John’s message to Christ, and Christ Himself points to ‘the things which ye do hear and see’ (Matthew 5:4) as the best evidence of His claims to be the Messiah. It would, therefore, appear as if we had in these parallel passages, would it not? the two halves of the original saying. A twofold proof such as this—one within the moral nature itself, the other external, in the region of utility—is not more conformable to modern habits of thought, than to the entire spirit and scope of Christ’s teaching. It is for ‘the children of the kingdom’ not only to have the witness within them, but to see for themselves, and to declare to others in the region of the outward and the visible, those ‘fruits of righteousness’ which are the signs and evidences of the ‘Kingdom that cometh not with observation.’

The Rev. A. F. Muir.

Illustration

‘The disagreeable children can be enticed by no action of their companions. They will not dance to the gay music nor join in the mock mourning. A third method would be equally unsuccessful, because they are not to be pleased. They are sitting; there is always something wrong with children when they sit down for long. The life has gone out of them. Similarly there are people who are dissatisfied with all methods of religious work. Old staid methods are dull and gloomy to them; new and more lively methods are unseemly and irreverent. From the sobriety of the Quakers’ meeting to the unrestrained fervour of a Salvation Army meeting, they cannot discover any worship to suit them, and they find fault with all ways of conducting Church services. If some one could invent a new style of worshipping God, this would be of no use for the discontented people. Their discontent lies deeper. The children had no mind to play; these people have no mind to pray. Therefore we shall not reach them by new methods. They are in a hopeless state unless we can touch their hearts and lead them into a better state of mind. It is useless to pander to their prejudices. Perhaps at present all we can do is to pray for them.’