CRITICAL NOTES
Matthew 11:19. Wisdom.—God regarded as the All-Wise. Justified.—Acquitted of folly. Children.—The Divinely wise. The spiritual recognise the wisdom of God both in the austerity of John and in the loving mercy of Jesus (Carr). But see R.V.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Matthew 11:16-19
Wilful perverseness.—From addressing the “multitudes” (Matthew 11:7) before Him, the Saviour naturally passes in thought to those not before Him at that time. Those present are but representatives of the larger mass to which they belong. What is to be said of that mass—of that Jewish “generation” of that particular day—when looked at as a whole? To it especially had come that message of the Baptist with its reference to Himself, of which the Saviour has just been speaking. What has been and is its attitude towards that message and its connections? Our Saviour’s reply to this inquiry consists of a familiar parable or picture, on the one hand; and a suitable application of it, on the other.
I. The parable itself.—This presents us, first, with a well-known locality. It is in the “market place”—a place open to all, and where all are accustomed to meet—that the scene of the parable lies. It presents us, next, with a well-known incident. The children of the place have met there, and are engaged in their sports (cf. the well-known passage in Zechariah 8:5). Their sport at this time is that of imitating their seniors, and “making believe” to be men and women themselves, and doing as they have seen done by those “grown-up.” One company of them, with this object in view, visits another company and invites them to “play.” They invite them to “play,” first, at being mirthful and joyful; to “make believe” that it is a season of gladness; and to respond to them therefore in a similar strain. But this the other company refuse to do. They will not “dance” in response to their “piping” (Matthew 11:17). They are not inclined to that at this time. Thereupon the first company, being still anxious to “play,” at once alters its rôle. It pretends now that the time is a mournful one; and puts on the usual tokens of sorrow and mourning; and invites the other company to respond in like manner. But neither does this, again, meet the wishes of those unaccommodating play-mates. If they disliked the first, they dislike the other as much. There is no pleasing them, in fact, whatever is planned. Do what you will, you can’t content them.
II. The application of the parable.—This is at once very simple and very natural. According to it the company of children thus twice invited to “play,” but both times in vain, represents the men of that “generation.” The call to be “sorrowful” and “mournful” which came to that company, represented the message of the Baptist to that “generation.” It was a message of austerities and of sternness (John himself “came neither eating nor drinking,” Matthew 11:18); an earnest call to immediate repentance; an invitation to “mourn.” And it had been received, on the whole, in the same spirit as the similar invitation had been in the parable. It had been pronounced, on the whole, that is to say, to be an unseasonable invitation; so much so, in fact, that men had virtually said of him who brought it, that he must be “mad” to press it just now (see end of Matthew 11:18). The other invitation, that to be joyful, represented the message of the Saviour to the men of that day. Instead of being characterised by austerities it had been characterised by a suspension of them (see above Matthew 9:14) which had already scandalised some. The Saviour Himself, moreover, in delivering it, had “come eating and drinking,” it might be said. He had certainly “sat at meat” (Matthew 9:10) with some who were not conspicuous, to say the least, for their abstemiousness in such matters. And, above all, perhaps, instead of only calling them to “repentance” and “mourning,” He had both declared and sealed in a most open manner the fullest forgivenness of guilt (Matthew 9:1-8). Neither, however, had this invitation been more to the taste of that age. Like the children in the parable they had refused this as well as the other. If the other was too austere, this was too easy. If John was mad, Jesus was worse (Matthew 11:19). Any way, in both cases, the upshot was one. The “generation” which heard both the Baptist and the Saviour rejected them both! And maligned them both, too!
What do we learn from this condition of things? Amongst other lessons of great importance we seem to learn:—
1. That questions of truth are not questions to be decided by vote.—It is unquestionable, we see, that the men of their own generation thought the teaching of both John and Jesus to be utterly in the wrong. It is just as unquestionable that these same men were utterly in the wrong in so doing.
2. That questions of truth may be decided by the testimony of facts.—As a matter of fact, to what did the comparative severity of John bring men in the end? To repentance and Jesus (see Matthew 3:5-6; John 1:29, seq.). As a matter of fact to what did the abounding mercy of Jesus bring men in the end? To forgiveness and renewal; to the presence of God and fitness for it; to deliverance from both the guilt and the bondage of sin (Acts 3:26; Romans 8:1-4, etc.). So by these their “works” (R.V.) did both these “children” of “wisdom” justify their claim to that name.
HOMILIES ON THE VERSES.
Matthew 11:16-19. Unreason.—This sort of unreason shows itself again and again.
1. Men will find fault with Christ and Christianity, put the matter how you will.—Prejudice can always find some objection; and proud men who do not like John because he preaches repentance, do not like Jesus because He not only preaches repentance, but brings gratuitous salvation to the heart and to the home.
2. The attitude of Christians toward society is not seldom made a ground of censure by persons who have a good deal in common with the Pharisees and rulers of the Jews. They are too unsocial or they are too social. The critics are hard to please. If a Christian be reserved in his habits and a lover of retirement, they describe him as narrow and ungenial. If he be frank and accessible, they shake their heads over his worldliness and inordinate love of society. He is never quite right in their eyes. Let not such judgments of men disconcert or discourage any who with an honest heart endeavour to be true to Christ. The Lord Himself is our Master and our Example.—D. Fraser, D.D.
Playing in the market-place.—
I. Jesus takes notice of children when they are playing.—What we call little things are sometimes very much noticed by great people. The great Son of God takes great notice of little children, because He knows that upon one of them may depend very great things. Your actions at play are noticed by Christ, and when nothing wrong is said or done, He loves to see you having a merry game.
II. Jesus noticed that among the children playing in the market-place there were some who were sulky.—They would play at neither weddings nor funerals. These cross children, like some children now, were very good at one thing—they were good at finding fault. Some children are very much given to this bad habit; they find fault with their food, with their lessons, with their parents’ commands, even with their games. Perhaps some playfellow wants to play a game at hide-and-seek. They find fault with that. Then blind-man’s-buff is proposed. They don’t like that. And so they go on, finding fault with every game that is proposed instead of finding fault with themselves for being so very disagreeable.
III. Jesus here uses what the children did to teach men and women what they ought to do and what they ought not to do.—He says, “Whereunto shall I liken,” etc. “It is like unto children sitting in the markets, and calling,” etc. And in Matthew 11:18-19, He tells us why He so compares them. Neither the stern John nor the gentle Jesus pleased these people. They found fault with God’s servant and with God’s Son. And what lesson can we learn from this? Do you not see that God wants to bring people to Christ both by what is sad and by what is glad.—W. Harris.
Matthew 11:19. Wisdom justified of her children.—I. If wisdom was justified in the cases both of John and Jesus, it follows that wisdom is compatible with various ways of life.—Wisdom was justified both in John and the Son of man—God’s wisdom in sending them, such as they were; their wisdom in being what God meant them to be. John’s work as the forerunner of Messiah was one involving rough tasks and demanding a stern will. It became him to come neither eating nor drinking, an austere ascetic, by the very exaggerations of his self-denial protesting against all forms of sensualism. On the other hand, the law of congruity required Jesus to come eating and drinking, and dressing like other people, within the limits of the innocent. For Jesus was the “Son of man,” and as such it became Him to be in all sinless respects like unto His brethren, that He might get close to them, and find His way into their hearts with His gospel of mercy, and the peace of forgiveness, and the rest of a new heart and endowed with rightly ordered affections. Wisdom was justified through His own lips; for His apologies for so living, to them that examined Him, are among the wisest as well as the most beautiful of His utterances. And wisdom, in the person of Jesus, was justified also by her children, i.e. by those who received the benefit of His grace.
II. Wisdom is not a time-server, seeking to please the world by following its fashion.—Both Jesus and John came so that their generation was extensively displeased with them. Herein the true, Divine, heaven-born wisdom differs from the wisdom of the world, the very essence of which consists in time-serving. True wisdom cares more for ultimate than immediate results, has faith in the future, and prescribes to a man as his first duty the expression of conviction, the forth-putting of the Divine force that is in him, regardless of the immediate consequences, at least comparatively.—A. B. Bruce, D.D.
Wisdom and her children.—
I. The various manifestation of truth to man is ascribable to the highest wisdom.
II. Wisdom has a certain class of men on earth who are to be regarded as its offspring.—The children of wisdom are those who have been regenerated by the doctrines which wisdom dispenses. They see things in the light in which wisdom points them out, and they pursue a course of life agreeable to that which wisdom directs. They are the children of wisdom, having a spirit of reverence and obedience for that heavenly wisdom displayed everywhere in the Bible.
III. These children of wisdom thoroughly approve of the truth in whatever form it comes.—The dark and bright sides are both approved. They have experienced the worth of both sides.—D. Thomas, D.D.