Spoiled

This morning, I thought I would include two versions of our short passage from Luke. First is the New Revised Standard Version, this is the translation that we use at SOTH on Sunday mornings. Second, Eugene Peterson's paraphrase "The Message," which I've been using exclusively in the blog as we've studied Luke. I really enjoy Peterson's work here, but it's pretty creative as he tries to modernize Jesus' words, and I just wanted to give you a side by side this time for comparision:

Luke 7:31-35 (New Revised Standard Version)
³² ‘To what then will I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like?

They are like children sitting in the market-place and calling to one another,

“We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we wailed, and you did not weep.”

³³³⁴³⁵For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, “He has a demon”; the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners!”

Nevertheless, wisdom is vindicated by all her children.’

Luke 7:31-35 (The Message)
"How can I account for the people of this generation?

They're like spoiled children complaining to their parents,

'We wanted to skip rope and you were always too tired; we wanted to talk but you were always too busy.'

John the Baptizer came fasting and you called him crazy. The Son of Man came feasting and you called him a lush. Opinion polls don't count for much, do they?

The proof of the pudding is in the eating."

At this point, I think it's safe to say that Jesus has almost had enough.

He's frustrated, and it makes me feel good to see that he, too, could feel frustration. The problem is that Jesus feels frustration for the right reasons...and I usually don't.

I'm too often frustrated because, like a spoiled child, I somehow haven't gotten my way. What about you?

Jesus compares the generation of Israelites that he experienced in the Gospels to a bunch of whiny kids..."we wanted to skip rope, but you were too tired."

"What do you want," he almost seems to ask. "John fasted and you didn't understand...I celebrate, eat and drink and I'm villainized...the truth is that what you think doesn't matter" (my paraphrase).

The proof of the pudding is, "in the eating."

Remember the tree and its fruit? Bad fruit doesn't come from a healthy tree. Jesus is carrying this same theme forward and now applying it to himself.

What do people say about him? It doesn't matter.

What do people say about us? It doesn't matter. How much freedom is in that truth?

What matters is the fruit...the "pudding"....you name the metaphor: look around our lives, and we'll know whether we've allowed God to take up residence in our hearts. And it's never too late to begin.

Prayer: We hear the frustration of Jesus' words, and we pray that you would take the "spoiled child's" heart from within us and replace it with grace, peace, and love. May we fast when the time is right and eat when the time is right...and may we see your abundant fruit produced in the world around us.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. World without end. Amen.