Never Satisfied

Luke 7:32-35 “To what then shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like? 32“They are like children who sit in the market place and call to one another, and they say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’ 33“For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon!’ 34“The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ 35“Yet wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”

Man is a fickle creature. We have many frailties and many issues that we deal with. Sometimes I wonder if we can EVER be satisfied. Here, Jesus is dealing with the Jews and he has just testified concerning John the Baptist. Jesus addressed the crowd, many of whom had rejected the baptism of repentance by John. The bible says in John 2:24 that Jesus knows what is in the heart of man. Here in this particular passage, Jesus knew exactly what was in these peoples’ hearts. He knew that they could never be satisfied. Whenever we are led by our own desires and not by the Spirit of God, we will never be satisfied. The bible says in Proverbs 27:20 that there are three things that are NEVER satisfied…Sheol (the grave) and Abaddon (the pit of destruction) AND the eyes of man (emphasis added).
The Jews judged John the Baptist as having a demon, whereas Christ said that there was not a man born of woman that was greater than John. Then, Christ comes and they call him a drunkard and criticize the people that he associated with…and He was God in the flesh! He refers to himself here as the Son of Man, a clear reference to the title used in the book of Daniel of the Messiah.

Jesus proceeds to call these people out for who they were. They acted exactly like he said…like little children; Children that were never satisfied. You didn’t dance when we played the flute for you. You did cry when we sang a dirge for you. This metaphor was used to illustrate immaturity at its highest. In this case, their immaturity cost them a chance at eternal life. We can gather from the text that these comments were directed at the Pharisees that refused baptism.

Let us bring this up to 2011. In the current political climate, we have the birthers, the Tea Party, the GOP, Focus on the Family…etc. You name the issue and there is a group out there to promote it. It seems that President Obama has brought out the worst in all of the conservative political action groups. The GOP wants him shining shoes. The anti-abortionists want him to camp out in front of abortion clinics. The Tea Party wants him to cut their taxes and raise everyone else’s. And then there are the “birthers”. These are the ones that are vehemently opposed to the President not because of some egregious offense but because they don’t “believe” that he is an American citizen. They claim that the birth certificate that he presented was invalid because it was a “short form”. They have been clamoring since he got elected. Donald Trump (the hairless wonder) has recently infused energy into their cause and brought the issue of the birth certificate back to the forefront.

In the midst of the furor, Mr. Obama has now produced and authentic, full and official version of his birth certificate. His birth certificate came directly from the State of Hawaii Department of Health. How much more proof can he provide? Obviously, he hasn’t satisfied those that cried in the marketplace because there has been even more backlash over this. Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck have charged that Mr. Obama is using this as a diversion from the bleak report from Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve. Others, according to Lynn (the Boss around these parts), are now questioning his educational credentials. How much can this brother do to prove his authenticity?

Let’s be clear, I am not comparing Obama to Jesus. He’s far from a savior or a Messiah. However, the analogy that Jesus used for His naysayers fits perfectly here for Mr. Obama’s naysayers. They are simply never satisfied. If they play and he dances, then they will find a reason to complain and say his dancing too ethnic. There will even be a contingent of African-Americans that will say that he’s not dancing ethnic enough. If they play a dirge and he weeps, they will claim that he’s soft and cannot lead in times of trouble. If he doesn’t weep at their little squeaking violin song, they will say he is insensitive and can’t possibly be fit to lead a nation. I think it is safe to say that those who oppose the President will never be satisfied.

Jesus made a great statement to close out his rebuke of those that were opposed to believing and being baptized. Jesus said in verse 35 “Yet, wisdom is vindicated by her children”. What Jesus was saying here is that whatever wisdom produces will be validated by said wisdom. The “offspring” of wisdom causes wisdom (i.e. the application of wisdom) to be vindicated or proven correct. God, in his infinite wisdom, saw fit to send John ahead of Jesus to be a herald to the Messiah. He also saw fit, in his infinite wisdom to send the Christ to redeem us from the power and penalty of sin. Regardless of what anyone said, whether or not they believed…God’s wisdom was vindicated. Jesus overcame death, he overcame the grave and he made a public spectacle of Satan (Colossians 2:15) on the Cross. It seems oxymoronic that His death could lead to triumph but His death was exactly what God desired and required to redeem sinful man. God was satisfied with the atoning sacrifice of Christ. Thank God that He is not like man. Christ satisfied his wrath and we can all be grateful for that!

If the statement that Christ made is true, and we know that it is, we can draw a logical conclusion that Widsom’s evil twin sister, Folly is also vindicated by her children. Right now, the children of Folly are up in arms because we have a Black president that did not make his way in the world through affirmative action or handouts- but by hard work and by the grace of God. The children of Folly make blind claims about a birth certificate, question the educational acumen of a man that was president of the Harvard Law Review and run to Fox (Faux) News if the president passes gas upwind instead of downwind.

If we could get some of these politicians and wanna-be activists to be satisfied and learn to be content as Paul spoke of (Phillipians 4), we could probably get something accomplished on Capitol Hill. If we had people with the mind and humility of Christ, the nation would not be in this pickle that we are in currently. As it stands though, those that cry the loudest are also the ones that can and will not be satisfied…that is, until someone the same color as they are takes Mr. Obama’s place in the Oval Office.