What Wisdom Wants
Luke 7:18-35 – Jesus and John the Baptist
- “What does Wisdom Want?”
- This is a fascinating passage ending with an intriguing one sentence summary from Jesus.
- The second level of Pais HD ‘Implied’ – uses an ancient Jewish method to understand the complex message that Jesus just sent to John.
- John is perplexed.
- His cousin, the one He believes to be the messiah is out and about doing His things whilst he is stuck in prison under the threat of death.
- Why isn’t he being rescued?
- Why is Jesus ignoring his predicament?
- He sends his disciples to ask Jesus if He really is the Messiah, possibly suggesting that he [John] is having his doubts but more likely simply drawing Jesus to his predicament and challenging his cousin’s non-action.
- Jesus’ reply is amazing!
- Via a remez, Jesus explains to John that he will not rescue him.
- He quotes six of the seven accepted ‘signs’ of the Messiah pointing out that He is fulfilling every one of them.
- But he leaves out a specific one;
“To set the prisoners free”
- In other words; “Yes I am but I have no intention of freeing you because it does not serve my purposes”.
- Jesus then tells John that blessed is the man who does not fall away from the faith because of the way He goes about His business.
- John is left with a challenge:
- Trust Jesus to do things His way for the benefit of the Kingdom or demand Jesus do things his way for the benefit of himself.
- More teaching on this is unpacked by Jesus
- He hints at a fable known as ‘The Fisherman & the Flute”. In that story; the fisherman played a flute but the fish did not dance so they were caught in his net and had to dance – it was too late to do it willingly and with joy.
- Jesus is challenging the people to dance to God’s tune with Joy now, because either way what God wants is going to happen!
- He summarizes with an intriguing phrase which in my Bible is translated as;
- “Wisdom is proven right by all her children”
- What exactly does that mean?
- Well there are a few possible translations: “The proof of what is purveyed as wisdom is the character of the people who hold onto it” or “Everyone tries to justify His own brand of wisdom”.
- Both true.
- But the one translation that I think best fits with Jesus’ overall message is;
“The proof of wisdom is in all the kinds of people it produces”
- God uses different people in different was to teach us different things His way.
- We criticize Him and his messengers to easily. They are either too academic or too shallow. They are either too wealthy or have poverty mindset. They are either too driven or couldn’t organize a knees up in Pensacola.
- What does wisdom want?
- She wants us to respond positively to God no matter which way He brings His Kingdom into our lives.
- John came one way; Jesus came another.
- We may like one but not the other.
- Either way we face the same challenge as John; we cannot change Jesus’ plan but with can get in line with it now and rejoice in it or be forced to reluctantly get in line with it at a later date and miss the fun.
- Our only choice is how we react to Jesus doing His thing His way.
- If John had to learn this – I certainly do!
- Praying for a supple heart today.
- You can find much more teaching about Pais HD and ancient methods of Bible Study on the ‘Ancient Trilogy’ Media Bands available from www.paisproject.com
