Luke 7:31-35

The Application. “ Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like? 32. They are like unto children sitting in the market-place, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept. 33. For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and ye say, He hath a devil. 34. The Son of man is come eating and drinking, and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. 35. But Wisdom is justified of all her children. ”

Here it is no longer the ministry of John simply that is the subject. Jesus is expressing His judgment of the conduct of the generation then living, with respect to the two great divine messages with which it had just been favoured. There is something severe in the double question of Luke 7:31. Jesus has a difficulty in finding a comparison that will adequately set forth the senseless conduct which He has witnessed. At last His mind fixes on an image which answers to His thought. He recalls a game at which the children of His time were accustomed to play, and in which perhaps He had Himself in His youth taken part of an evening, in the market - place of Nazareth. This game bore some resemblance to that which we call a charade. The players divided themselves into two groups, of which each one in turn commences the representation of a scene in ordinary life, while the other, taking up the scene thus begun, finishes the representation of it. It is not therefore, as with us, the mere guessing of a word; but, in conformity with the more dramatic character of the oriental genius, a passing from the position of spectators to that of actors, so as to finish the representation commenced by the players who imagined the scene. In this case two attempts are made alternatively, one by each of the two groups of children (προσφανοῦσιν ἀλλήλοις, calling one to another, Luke 7:32); but with equal want of success. Each time the actors whose turn it is to start the game are foiled by the disagreeable humour of their companions, whose part it is to take up the representation and finish the scene. The first company comes playing a dance tune; the others, instead of rising and forming a dance, remain seated and indifferent. The latter, in their turn, indicate a scene of mourning; the others, instead of forming themselves into a funeral procession, assume a weary, sullen attitude. And thus, when the game is over, each company has reason to complain of the other, and say: “ We have..., you have not...”

The general meaning is obvious: the actors, in both cases, represent the two divine messengers joined by the faithful followers who gathered about them from the first: John, with his call to repentance, and his train of penitents; Jesus, with His promises of grace, and attended by a company of happy believers. But while the means they employ are so different, and so opposed even, that it seems that any man who resists the one must submit to the other, moral insensibility and a carping spirit have reached such a height in Israel that they paralyze their effects. De Wette, Meyer, and Bleek give quite a different application of the figure. According to them, the company which begins the game represents the people, who want to make the divine messengers act according to their fancy; the other company, which refuses to enter into their humour, represents John and Jesus, who persevere, without deviation, in the path God has marked out for them. But, in this case, the blame in the parable should fall not on the second company, which would be justified in not entering into a part imposed upon them, but on the first, which tries to exact a tyrannical compulsion on the other. Now it is not so at all. It is evident that those on whom the blame falls are the dissatisfied and peevish spectators, who each time refuse to enter into the proposed game (and ye say..., and ye say..., Luke 7:33-34). Besides, when did the people seek to exert such an influence on John and Jesus as would be indicated here? Lastly, there is an evident correspondence between the two reproaches: “ We have piped..., we have mourned...; ” and the two facts: “ John came...The Son of man is come...” What has led these interpreters astray is the somewhat inaccurate form in which the parable is introduced at Luke 7:32: “This generation is like to children calling one to another. ” But in these preambles the connection between the image and the idea is often indicated in a concise and somewhat inaccurate manner. Thus Matthew 13:24: “ The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man which sowed,” and elsewhere. The meaning, therefore, of Luke 7:32 is simply this: “The conduct of the present generation towards the messengers sent to it by God is like that which takes place amongst children who...” By the repetition of “ and ye say ” (Luke 7:33-34), Jesus translates, so to speak, into words the refusal of the people to enter into the feeling of holy grief or holy joy with which God would impress them.

But, notwithstanding this general resistance, divine wisdom finds some hearts which open to its different solicitations, and which justify by their docility the contrary methods it adopts. These Jesus calls the children of wisdom, according to an expression used in the book of Proverbs. Καί (Luke 7:35): “ And nevertheless. ” The preposition ἀπό, from, indicates that God's justification is derived from these same men, that is to say, from their repentance on hearing the reproof and threatenings of John, and from their faith, resembling a joyous amen, in the promises of Jesus. Πάντων, all: not one of these children of wisdom remain behind...; all force their way into the kingdom.

The term wisdom recalls the word counsel (Luke 7:30); the expression is justified, the justified of Luke 7:29. This connection will not allow of the meaning being given to Luke 7:35, which some have proposed: “Divine wisdom has been justified from the accusations (ἀπό) brought against it by its own children, the Jews.” This meaning is also excluded by the word all, which would contain an inadmissible exaggeration (Luke 7:29).

Instead of τέκνων, children, א reads ἔργων, works: “Wisdom has derived its justification from the excellent works which it produces in those who submit to it.” But the epithet πάντων, all, does not suit this sense. The reading ἔργων is taken from the text of Matthew, in certain documents (א. B. Syr. Cop.). It would be more allowable in that Gospel, in which the word πάντων is omitted. But even then it is improbable.

This discourse is one of those which best show what Jesus was as a popular speaker. The understanding is brought into play, and the curiosity stimulated by the interrogative form (Luke 7:24; Luke 7:26; Luke 7:31); and the imagination excited by lively images, full of charm (Luke 7:24-25; Luke 7:32). Lastly, there is a striking application to the conscience: John failed through his austerity; I shall fail through my gentleness; neither under one form nor another will you obey God. Nevertheless there are those whose conduct by condemning you justifies God.

5. The Gratitude of the Woman who was a Sinner: Luke 7:36-50.

The following narrative seems to have been placed here as an illustration of wisdom being justified by her children (Luke 7:35), and particularly of this last word: all.