Midweek Reflection for July 14, 2021

Luke 7:31-35 (CEB)

³¹ “To what will I compare the people of this generation?” Jesus asked. “What are they like? ³² They are like children sitting in the marketplace calling out to each other, ‘We played the flute for you and you didn’t dance. We sang a funeral song and you didn’t cry.’ ³³ John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ ³⁴ Yet the Human One came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ ³⁵ But wisdom is proved to be right by all her descendants.”

REFLECTION

Jesus faced criticism all the time. In this case, it’s about food, eating and drinking it. John fasted too much, Jesus doesn’t fast enough, and he eats with sinners. Jesus says these adult leaders are like children on a playground taunting each other.

Criticism abounds in our world. Partisan politics is just one place where it happens. Criticism happens at home, in the schoolyard and classroom, in the workplace, at the gym. It happens at church: the hymns were great / they were horrible; I loved the sermon / I didn’t get anything out of the sermon.

It’s natural for us to disagree with one another. What is important is how we express our different opinions. Shared with respect we can learn from each other why they have that point of view. Conversations based on finding common ground can be very fruitful and move the relationship or organization to a new way of thinking.

Unfortunately, Jesus didn’t have that option. What he came to do and say was intended to polarize people for and against him. And he knew the powerful would win; it was their criticism that would count against him as he walked the earth toward the cross.

But it was God’s wisdom which ultimately proved true, after the resurrection. Jesus’ critics were wrong. God wants abundance and justice, grace, for all people, not just some of the people.

When we criticize others, we may discover later that the wisdom of the other opinion or position was just as valid, just as good and true, as the one we were committed to. Let’s offer each other grace and respect with we disagree, and search for whatever we have in common rather than focusing on our differences. Amen