Yet wisdom is justified by her children. – Luke 7:35

In Luke chapter 7, Jesus is dealing with questions from and of John the Baptist. John sends disciples to ask if Jesus is the One. Jesus, referring back to Isaiah 61 (which he read in the synagogue at the beginning of his public ministry in 4:16-30 and applied to himself), points to what he has been doing. This is the evidence for John: Jesus is fulfilling the prophecies about him.

After John’s messengers leave, Jesus turns the questions on the crowd. Who was John? He was a prophet, but more than a prophet (Lk 7:26). While Isaiah and the other prophets could only look forward to Jesus’ day (1Pt 1:10-12), John got to herald it. He got to point at Jesus himself and say “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!”

Luke puts in a parenthetical statement about how people reacted to this in verses 29-30. This is the passage that stumped me. The people and the tax collectors “declared God just having been baptized with the baptism of John but the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves having not been baptized by him.” I got hung up asking what God’s purpose for them in John’s baptism was. After all, John’s baptism alone was insufficient and incomplete (Acts 19:1-6). At that point in redemptive history, it was sufficient but there was more to come. So what did it mean?

If you were to get caught in your sin today, would your response be the same as it was when you first became a Christian? Would you flee to Jesus and weep or would you “repent” and beat your breast and then do something good to make up for it?Sometimes to get that answer you need to camp on the part that is bothering you and sometimes you need to just keep reading. I camped for a while and when it didn’t seem to help, I kept reading. What helped me get the answer was looking at the Greek; however, you could get there by comparing English versions too. The same word for “declared God just” is used again in verse 35 about wisdom. Some translations use different English words to translate both and that can be confusing. The NASB says “acknowledged God’s justice” and “wisdom is vindicated by all her children” which is a fair translation but it blurs the connection between these verses. Anyway, once I made the connection between verse 29 and vere 35 I began to look at Luke’s parenthetical statement not through the lens of John’s baptism but through the lens of God’s wisdom.

How is wisdom justified by her children? She is justified by their fruits, by what they do. In 31-35 Jesus is lamenting the current generation. They rejected John for being too radical and they’re rejecting Jesus for being too accommodating. There is just no pleasing these folks it seems! But look at those who are following Jesus and John, they’re showing that God’s wisdom was right. John called them to repentance and some repented. Jesus came to heal and forgive and the sinners are coming to him. The “righteous” are rejecting both of them. This shows that God was right in sending Jesus and John to the poor and the broken and the needy, not to those who believe they have their acts together. This was Isaiah’s prophecy. Freedom would be proclaimed to those in captivity, the good news would go to the poor.

And look at what is happening! God was right. The poor and needy are flocking to Jesus but the “righteous” are clicking their tongues and rolling their eyes. The wisdom of God’s decision to send Jesus for the poor is justified. God’s purpose in sending John to preach a baptism of repentance is justified as those needing it came.

So what about us? Have we come to Jesus as those who were needy? Do we call the other needy people to come and follow Jesus with us? I think the real danger in our discipleship is that we enter knowing we need to repent and follow Jesus but after a while we get comfortable. Soon we change our begger’s and prostitute’s clothing for the rich robes of the Pharisees. Surely we needed Jesus but do we still need him today? If you were to get caught in your sin today, would your response be the same as it was when you first became a Christian? Would you flee to Jesus and weep or would you “repent” and beat your breast and then do something good to make up for it? Wisdom is justified by her children. So is God.