Play by Our Rules

by Edwin Crozier

In Luke 7:31-35, Jesus spoke out against the people of the generation He was visiting in His incarnation. He said, “To what shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like?” (Luke 7:31 ESV). It’s possible He was making a general point about the illustration as a whole. I know many smart people take it that way. But I struggle with that. He doesn’t say, “They are like this following situation.” He says, “They are like children…”

What are the children doing? They call to one another, complaining, “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep” (Luke 7:32 ESV). That is, the generation was like little children complaining because the others wouldn’t play their games. The others won’t play by their rules.

Then Jesus explained. John came eating and drinking, and people from the generation–namely the Pharisees and lawyers who refused his baptism–said, “He has a demon.” That is, he won’t play by our rules. He won’t play our games. He’s weird and extreme. Jesus, however, came eating and drinking, but that wasn’t good enough either. The people from the generation said, “Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” Again, He won’t play by our rules. He won’t play our games. He’s not strict enough about what we think is important.

But wisdom is vindicated by all her children. That is, though John and Jesus were different, they both walked in wisdom. They weren’t following the crowd. They weren’t kowtowing to the rules of the present generation. But they pursued and proclaimed wisdom. In the end, they both vindicated and justified wisdom. They showed that wisdom is the victorious path. Granted, some might argue otherwise. After all, they were both executed. But then again, wisdom isn’t leading us to long, healthy lives. Wisdom is leading us to resurrection. And Jesus demonstrated that on the third day.

We must let this guide us. Just this morning, I saw someone respond to a post on Facebook by saying, “The world won’t respect us if we continue doing such and such…” At this point, it doesn’t even matter if what the commenter was rebuking was right or wrong. The argument's basis was flawed. The world will always complain when we don’t play by the world’s rules. But if we are following God’s wisdom, we will never play by the world’s rules. And they will call out, complaining about us, “We sang a dirge, and you didn’t weep. We played a jig, and you didn’t dance. You won’t play our games. You won’t keep our rules.” But we don’t dance or mourn to the world’s fiddle. We walk by the Lord’s wisdom.

But take comfort in this: when we follow God’s wisdom, it will always end up vindicated and justified. And we will always end up glorified.

Praise the Lord!