But to whom shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the markets, which, calling to their companions,
Jesus has just spoken about John the Baptist. Now He turns from the messenger to the crowd that heard him, and compares them not to hardened enemies but to children playing games in a public square.
The markets were full of the serious business of life. There the Lord pictures children who are only sitting and playing.
But where was the fitting response to John's ministry, which called men to repentance? Or to the ministry of the Lord Jesus, which brought in the precious age of grace? Instead of recognizing God's voice in both, "this generation" were like children sitting in the markets. That is, they were childish and idle, though the serious realities of life surrounded them.
Commentators differ on which side of the game the generation stands. One reading puts them at the pipe: they set the tune and expected God's servants to perform.
That generation as a whole could only be compared to children sitting in the market-place. They played at life: they wanted John to dance when they piped, and the Lord and His disciples to weep when they mourned. They understood neither the one nor the other, because they were too careless to understand.
Others hear the pipe in God's hand, testing what response the human heart can give.
God had now put man fully to the test, speaking to him through different ministries, but man had no answer for God. When He mourned to him, man had no tears; when He piped to him, man had no dancing. The human heart proved to be no instrument for the finger of God. All was out of tune, when God tried it.
The two tunes match two very different ministries. One brought strict righteousness, the other free grace, and this generation liked neither.
They were displeased with John and with Jesus alike, content neither with law nor with grace. Men do not like righteousness — that is too strict for them; neither do they like grace — that is too free. They would have part of one and part of the other.
The refusal was not quiet. They resented both ministries, and turned the second into an insult.
John did not dance to their music. He came neither eating nor drinking — that is, he did not join their celebrations, for he had a solemn message of repentance to preach. They resented this. On the other hand, the Son of Man had come among men in grace, eating and drinking with them. They resented that He was not mourning, and dared to accuse Him of being a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.
The word is not just a headcount of the people alive at that moment. It describes what kind of people they were.
The meaning here is moral, not a matter of time. In Deuteronomy 32:5, 20 we find "generation" used the same way. It does not stand for a period of time. It expresses the moral character of Israel.
This verse marks a shift in Matthew. Up to this point the King is offered to the nation. Here His rejection first shows plainly.
In this Gospel the first plain sign that the kingdom is rejected comes with the change of teaching in Matthew 11:16. Until then the kingdom had been presented to the nation in the person of the King.
Not everyone in that generation played the game. Some heard both tunes and agreed with God about each.
Wisdom's children were those whose consciences God had taught. They accepted the truth of John's testimony, even though it spoke against them. They also accepted the grace of the ways of Jesus — grace that the guilty so badly need.
- Marketplace. The Lord pictures this generation as children idling in the market — childish and unoccupied, though the serious realities of life surround them.
- Piping. The game has two tunes. Commentators differ on who holds the pipe: the crowd demanding that God's servants perform, or God testing a heart that gives back no music.
- Refusal. They found John's righteousness too strict and Christ's grace too free. They resented John's call to repentance, and called Jesus a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.
- Character. "This generation" describes a kind of person, not a span of years. Deuteronomy 32 uses the word in the same way.
- Exception. Wisdom's children are the ones whose consciences accepted John's verdict against themselves. They also welcomed the grace that the guilty need.
say, We have piped to you, and ye have not danced we have mourned to you, and ye have not wailed.
The picture is a street game gone wrong. Children call out to playmates who will not join in, whatever tune they play. Jesus uses it to describe the people of His own day. If neither a funeral song nor a dance tune moves them, what would?
A marketplace is where adults do serious business. The children in the story do nothing of the kind.
Instead of recognizing God's voice in both cases, "this generation" were like children sitting in the markets. That is, they were childish and also idle, though surrounded by the serious realities of life. They called out to others and complained. The others had not danced to their music, and had not lamented when they mourned.
The piping and the mourning are not random images. They match two ministries the nation had just witnessed.
He was the one who "mourned" to them, for he had about him the same stern manner that had marked the prophet Elijah. He was strict and kept himself apart. In his ministry he kept putting his finger on the weakest spots in the lives of his hearers. They paid no real attention to him and did not "lament." Then came the blessed Lord Jesus Christ with news of grace. He mixed with men, He went to their feasts, He worked miracles in grace on their behalf.
The refusal was not about taste. The same people were unhappy with both messengers.
Equally displeased with John and with Jesus, content neither with law nor with grace. Men do not like righteousness — that is too strict for them. Neither do they like grace — that is too free. They would have part of one and part of the other.
Commentators differ on which side of the game the unbelieving generation stands. One reading puts them in the seat of the complaining children, demanding that God's messengers perform to their tune.
They treated pleasure as a game. They treated sorrow as a game too, even the sorrow that lay on man because of his sins. They wanted John to dance to their piping. They wanted Jesus and His disciples to beat their breasts to their idle funeral song. The ways of God never suited them.
The other reading reverses it: God is the one playing, and man is the instrument that will not sound.
God had now been making full proof of him, addressing him by different ministries, but man had no answer for God. When He mourned to him, man had no tears; when He piped to him, he had no dancing. The human heart proved to be no instrument for the finger of God. All was out of tune when God tried it… He would have raised a solemn note through John the Baptist, who came neither eating nor drinking. Then He would have raised a more joyful one through the sociable Son of Man. But there was no music in the heart of man for God.
Turning down John's call to repentance closed the door on everything that came after him.
They refused the lesser testimony, so they never passed into the greater things — the reality from God. Their own consciences ought to have proved it true. Because they refused it, they were not ready to receive the gift of His grace. A person receives Christ to salvation only in the conscience. Feeling and understanding will never do alone.
Not everyone refused. Wisdom's children are the exception.
The men of that generation rejected both alike. One was the stern and distant minister of righteousness, with the axe of judgement in his hand. The other was the lowly, gentle Minister of divine grace, with words of tenderness and acts of goodness. But wisdom's children will always justify her, in all her doings and in all her sayings. … What a privilege to be one of that favoured group, wisdom's children! To have an eye to see, an ear to hear, and a heart to understand and appreciate the ways and works and words of divine Wisdom!
- Two tunes. John mourned to them with a call to repentance; Jesus piped to them with grace. God sounded both notes. That generation refused both.
- One refusal. The same crowd called John too strict and Jesus too free. The problem was never the messenger's style. It was the hearer's heart.
- Idle players. Children play games in a marketplace of serious business. They judge God's ministry by whether it entertains them.
- A closed door. Turning down John's smaller testimony left them unready for the greater gift in Christ. The conscience must be at work; feeling alone will never do.
- Wisdom's children. A few heard both tunes and answered — and that eye to see and ear to hear is itself a privilege, not an achievement.
For John has come neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He has a demon.
Jesus looks back at John the Baptist's ministry and repeats the verdict His generation passed on him. John gave up ordinary comforts and called the nation to repent, so why did they answer him with the charge of having a demon?
The phrase points to a whole way of life, not one missed meal. John lived outside the settled world of his hearers. Everything about him preached before he spoke a word.
John the Baptist had come in a completely different way, and in a way that was naturally more striking. He had come as a man who separated himself from everyone alike, and did so completely. He preached in the wilderness of Judea. He was never seen in their cities and never took part in their religious ceremonies, though he came from a priestly family. With his strange, unfashionable coat of camel's hair and his food of locusts and wild honey, he stood apart from men, calling a whole nation to repent and to flee from the coming wrath.
His going without wine was not just personal taste. It had a name in Israel.
They did not answer his message; they labelled the man. They gave Jesus the opposite label for the opposite life.
John, separate from the iniquity of the nation, had, in their eyes, a devil. Jesus, kind to the most wretched, they accused of falling in with evil ways.
Their charge was an excuse. It let them treat God's way as madness instead of answering it.
The ways of God never suited them. If John came in the way of righteousness, and so with his call to repentance, they said he had a demon — he would drive us among the tombs.
The same people who found John too severe went on to find Jesus too free. The problem was never the messenger's style.
Israel was equally displeased with John and with Jesus, content neither with law nor with grace. Men do not like righteousness; it is too strict for them. They do not like grace either; it is too free. They would have part of one and part of the other.
God tried two opposite approaches. Both drew a blank.
By the Baptist, who came neither eating nor drinking, God would have raised a solemn tone. By the sociable Son of man He would have raised a more joyful one. But there was no music in the heart of man for God. This was proved after the most skilful hands had made the trial.
Man's verdict was not the last word on John. The insult tied him to his Master instead of shaming him.
It is a blessed thing to see John linked with His Master in persecution and death. "John came neither eating nor drinking." His home was the desert and his food locusts and wild honey. "They say, 'He has a demon.'" Through John came one of the greatest revivals Israel had known, yet his head was traded away for a dance. He stands out clearly in God's roll of honour.
- Separation. John's fasting was the Nazarite life lived out — no wine, no city, no share in the ordinary cheer of the people he warned.
- Slander. That separation earned him the charge of having a demon. It was a quick way to dismiss a man whose righteousness showed up the nation.
- Symmetry. The same generation then accused Jesus of falling in with evil ways. Too strict for them in John, too free in Jesus — content with neither law nor grace.
- Diagnosis. God tried the solemn note and the joyful one. Neither drew music from the human heart — the fault lay in the instrument, not the player.
- Vindication. Man's verdict on John was "demon"; God set him in His roll of honour — and the insult only tied him closer to the Master who was slandered next.
The Son of man has come eating and drinking, and they say, Behold, a man [that is] eating and wine-drinking, a friend of tax-gatherers, and of sinners -- and wisdom has been justified by her children.
In Matthew 11 the crowd finds fault with John the Baptist for fasting and with the Lord for eating and drinking. God sent both messengers, and the verse closes with one short reply about wisdom's children.
"A friend of tax collectors and sinners" was an attack, not praise. The word "friend" carried real weight.
They worked on the idea that you know a man by the company he keeps. So they hinted that He was like tax collectors and immoral people in character and tastes. There was a sting in this charge that He was a "friend" of such people. Friend is a very strong word in a Jewish context. The word puts one person in debt to another. It lays an obligation on both people in the friendship. But in this verse Christ shows that receiving God's grace changes the sinner. Grace is the source of true holiness, not of loose living.
One writer looks at what that friendship let Him do.
His friendship toward the sinner was one of His distinctive glories. True, He was holy, harmless, and undefiled in all His ways. Yet by that friendship He could pardon the guilty. He could do more than speak of paradise to a criminal who repented. And yet men branded Him for such grace! Blessed brand!
The verse before pictures children who will not dance when others play music, and will not cry when others mourn. The Lord turns that picture on two very different messengers.
John was like the children who "mourned": he called the people to repentance. The Lord was like those who "piped": He brought the sweet music of grace to all. The first came with the sternness of a prophet, standing apart from a people under judgment. The second made Himself easy to approach, so that He might, if it were possible, win the trust of sinners for God. Neither testimony found any echo. Men rejected both witnesses. They did worse than that: they accused John of having a demon, and Christ of sharing in the sins of those He came to save.
He "came eating and drinking." He lived among ordinary people, with none of the outward marks of a strict holy man. That cost Him nothing in holiness.
John the Baptist was a literal Nazirite — set apart by vow, abstaining from wine and much else. He came neither eating nor drinking, and the thanks he got was that he had a demon. The Son of Man came eating and drinking. He was a Man with men. The blessed Lord did not need any external self-righteous separation. His holy soul was fully separate to His Father, and He needed no outward sign to prove it. When they called Him a glutton and a drunkard, the lie was so plain that it needed no answer.
Some copies read "works" here, as the ESV does with "her deeds." Others read "her children." One writer holds to "children."
The contrast is with "this generation." In the verses that follow, the Lord shows that generation as the object of more than outward judgment, while wisdom's children are the objects of the Father's sovereign grace. For the works of the Wisdom of God to prove her right seems obvious. For her children to prove her right is a weighty truth.
To "justify" wisdom is to declare God right. One writer, on the same saying in Luke, says no one can do that while claiming to be better than the people grace reaches.
Justifying God is the great point of true righteousness inside a person. That righteousness is wholly lost in us. We can only own it in Another, and own it as sinners. First we own it under John the Baptist, the ministry of repentance, where we admit that we stand rightly condemned. Then we own it in grace, in God's ways toward us as sinners. We cannot justify grace shown to the chief of sinners, and to everyone alike, unless we put ourselves in that place.
Wisdom still has children. One writer names what sets them apart.
Wisdom's children will always justify her, in all she does and all she says. The Lord be praised for this rich mercy! What a privilege to be one of that favoured number! To have an eye to see, an ear to hear, and a heart to understand and value the ways and works and words of divine Wisdom!
- Charge — They meant "friend of tax collectors and sinners" as a slur about shared obligation. He wore it as one of His glories.
- Contrast — John mourned, Jesus piped. God sent both messages, and one generation refused both.
- Freedom — He came eating and drinking, a Man among men. His heart was separate to His Father, so He needed no outward badge.
- Verdict — Works proving wisdom right would be obvious. Children proving her right means real people declare God right.
- Proof — Only those who admit they are sinners can justify grace shown to sinners. Those who do become wisdom's children, the living proof that she was right.