Neither Dance Nor Dirge
photo by Teo's photo on Flickr
Go to any farmer’s market, open-air craft fair, or urban street bazaar, and you can get a reasonable idea of the market Jesus is speaking about in our Gospel. The merchants arrive and set out their wares for the day, and soon the customers come looking for the best deals. And while this is going on, And kids will be kids, whether in ancient Palestine, or 21stcentury America. Playing happily one minute, the next minute the children are looking about for something to do. And then comes one of the most maddening, tedious conversations ever you will hear from child or adult:
“So, what do you want to do?”
“I don’t know.” “What do you want to do?”
“I don’t know.” “What do you want to do?”
“We could do this.”
“Nah, I don’t want to do that.”
“Oh, okay.” “How about this?”
“I really don’t want to do that either.”
“Huh.”“Yeah. I guess there’s nothing to do.”
Suggesting things to do, but the other person not only wants to do none of them, but neither do they offer an idea of what they might want to do. There are times when people are more focused on having a problem, than on finding a solution for the problem. Jesus presents a situation as a metaphor. There were kids that went to the marketplace, the gathering place, looking for something to do. But when some suggested they play wedding games, the other mates weren’t interested in doing that, they weren’t in the mood to dance and be happy; so they counter with the idea of a playing funeral games, but their mates don’t want to do that either, they weren’t in the mood to be mournful. They just weren’t in the mind for a solution.
I.
But Jesus isn’t talking about games around the marketplace. He’s talking about how his hearers regard salvation. They want a Savior; they just don’t want a savior like he is. They don’t want the message he proclaims, in fact, they would like him to change the message to suit them.
We can better understand what Jesus is talking about if we look back a few verses. The few brief verses of Gospel read earlier are part of a larger section in the Gospel of Matthew in which John the Baptist, then sitting in jail, has sent to Christ two of his disciples, with a question, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” (Matthew 11:3) When the messengers had gone back, Christ begins to teach the crowds concerning John. Part of that teaching is before us.
When John the Baptist preached he had a pretty austere lifestyle. Some today, if they were being charitable, might call him a minimalist. He lived in the wilderness eating locust and wild honey. He was the second Elijah pointing to the coming of the Messiah. John didn’t take a drink now and then, you didn’t find him at feasts; he was all about the business of being the messenger appointed by God. And his rugged ‘no frills’ lifestyle accentuated the message to repent, for the kingdom of God was at hand. Many went out to hear him preach, and as a result, many were baptized in the Jordan River. While many believed, many didn’t like what they heard. John’s message declared that man couldn’t find favor with God on his own; that his works count for nothing.
