Seeds For Thinking

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

Scripture: Jesus said, “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by her children.” Mt. 11:18-19, NKJV

An incident that happened to me while growing up on the farm brought home the full meaning of the maxim “Look before you leap.”
We had a lane, an unpaved path, connecting several fields with the buildings in the farmyard. One low spot was a perennial mud hole, stirred up into a gooey slop from vehicle and livestock traffic. As I rode my bicycle down the lane to fetch the cows in for the evening milking, I noted a pile of gravel that Dad had apparently brought in to fill the mud hole. Wow! A launch pad, just waiting to shoot me into the wild blue yonder.
Peddling furiously, I strove for takeoff speed. Up, up, up, perfect form! From my elevated viewpoint, I now had a full view of my landing point. Alas! Bicycles have neither air brakes nor wings. I quickly understood why Dad had not yet spread the gravel; he had dug a ditch to install a drainage pipe in the wet area, which now lay open before me. The laws of physics and gravity kicked in big time. Bicycle, boy, and bold aspirations of flight reached the lowest common denominator.
A quick survey from the bottom of the ditch determined that the major damage was to my dignity, but my collective wisdom clicked up another notch.
Add this thought to your maxim collection: “If in doubt, check it out.” My pride would not have taken such a tumble, for example, had I simply checked out both sides of that gravel pile.
What does this have to do with the chosen scripture passage? Well, hopefully it will serve to illustrate that leaping to conclusions can result in bad decisions, just like blindly jumping a gravel pile.
Jesus was likening his contemporary generation to children at play, comparing their refusal to join either a mock funeral or a mock marriage in the marketplace to the people’s refusal to accept either John the Baptist or Jesus. Instead, they stood aloof from both, making excuses based on wrong conclusions about them (vss. 16, 17.)
Seen from the proper perspective, neither John nor Jesus were in error. John was following the tenets of the Nazarite vow, as established in the Laws of Moses, and was not to eat nor drink anything from the grapevine. Matthew, Chapter 11, affirms that John’s behavior was consistent with prophecy and scripture, and their conclusions about him illustrated their lack of knowledge.
Likewise, their conclusions about Jesus were in error. Jesus points out that the well have no need of the physician, and that He came not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance. (Mt. 9:12, 13)
True wisdom is not found in the “children” who stand aloof, but in those who accept Jesus and John.
Yes, jumping to conclusions is indeed a tricky business.
July 10, 2005