Fr Agustinus Sutiono O.Carm

The context of Jesus’s saying in the gospel Reading today is the attitude of the people towards John the Baptist and Jesus. Many of them, including the tax collector, welcomed John as a prophet and let themselves being baptised by him. They amended the testimony of Jesus about him as his herald and prophet and acknowledged that God’s way was right. However, a different attitude was displayed by the Pharisees and the experts in the law. They rejected God’s purpose for themselves, rejected and criticised John for living in austerity, neither eating bread nor drinking wine.  They said: ‘He has a demon”. Then Jesus came. He ate and drank like nomally others. However, he did not receive their welcome either. Instead of believing in him, they criticised him, saying: ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’

Focusing on this demeaning attitude of the Pharisees and the scribes, Jesus said to the crowds: “To what shall I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? They are like children who sit in the marketplace and call to one another: ‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance. We sang a dirge, but you did not weep.’” So, any attitude towards others is counted before the eyes of Jesus. Whatever action we do to others, we do it to God, and therefore, God counts it. That’s why Jesus needed to comment on their attitude which refers to a disengagement or disconnectivity or pointlessness of their religious deeds or practices. They rechased Jesus and John for logically unreasonable and unclear reason, not on the basis of good knowledge and reasoning, but on ignorance and a sentiment of dislike.

Jesus equalises these experts of scripture and religious rules as children. It signifies that in the point of view of Jesus, they were persons who did not know yet the maturity of spiritual life. They did not have the perception about the essence of religión or becoming a religious person. As a consequence, they did not either grasp the practical knowledge of these matters nor knowing what was the most important thing to do before the eyes of God. Ironically, when Jesus and John introduced the right way, they inconsiderately rejected both Jesus and John.

When Jesus called them as children who “sit in the marketplace and called to one another”, He made his point that the Pharisees and the scribes who criticised Him and John were no more than children who did not know what they were doing, far from being meaningful, only uttering words of insignificance. The expression ‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance. We sang a dirge, but you did not weep’ showed that what they did to Jesus and John did not bring effect for living righteously before the Lord nor showed connection to the ultimate end end of being a religious person. The practice of religión which loses its essence will only créate an ignorant religious. It is a tragedy, an utter sadness. And we know very well how high it is the cost of ignorance. Wisdom is vindicated by all her children.