Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, July 9, 2023.

Matthew 11,16-19

Rev. Neli Miranda

What games did you play as a child? Can you remember which was your favorite one?  Hopscotch, hide and seek, playing house, playing marbles or jacks? My favorite ones were those played in the street. In Jesus’ time, children also played games in the street, and some of them might seem odd to us. They played interactive games called “wedding” and “funeral”, acting out the activities related to those events which included the participation of two groups: “the wedding game” required a group of children playing the flute while the others responded by dancing; in “the funeral game” a group wailed, and the others responded by mourning.  

In today’s Gospel Jesus is referring to these games. He describes children sitting in the marketplace wanting to play with each other. However, some of them are not interested in playing the “wedding” or “funeral” game and their companions complain, “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn” (11,19). So, while one group of children played cheerful notes on the flute or sang the sad notes of a dirge, the other group was unmoved, apathetic and unresponsive, doing nothing. How frustrating!

Likewise, Jesus felt frustrated when he denounced the apathetic generation of his time, those who neither listened to John the Baptist’s or Jesus’ call. “To what will I compare this generation? Jesus asks (11,16). He compares his generation with the unresponsive children in the marketplace. Both John the Baptist and Jesus came proclaiming the message of the nearness of God’s Kingdom with a call to repent and to turn to God, but the people did not respond to their call. John’s austere lifestyle led people to accuse him of having a demon and they did not respond to his wailing call. Jesus played the flute and invited people to dance, but he was called a “glutton, drunkard and a friend of sinners”.  Jesus’ contemporaries preferred to remain uninvolved rather than to seriously take God’s message and enter the Kingdom of God. What did the unresponsive ones really want?

Both John and Jesus called people to practice justice. However, this was not favorable to many because it meant to renounce their social privileges, which were sustained by unjust practices that brought suffering to most of the people.  They were very happy and comfortable with their privileged lifestyle and rejected the message of the Kingdom of God because this challenged them to change. They wanted someone to bless of the status quo! 

Jesus and his generation lived at a very critical time when the Roman Empire crushed the people of Israel, while religious leaders, complicit with the Empire, gave people no hope. Instead, they were oppressed. The system was close to collapse and destruction seemed inevitable. Entering the Kingdom of God and living guided by God’s justice was the great opportunity to change that path of destruction. Unfortunately, those who controlled the people rejected this opportunity and led them to destruction.  In 70 CE, after a besiege, the Roman army entered Jerusalem, destroyed the second temple, and massacred much of the remaining population. Those who had remained apathetic, who did not dance nor mourn were dispersed throughout the world for many centuries. 

Who plays the flute for us but we do not dance? Who wails but we do not mourn?  Many people in our midst call the world to implement and practice justice. As Jesus’ disciples, we proclaim the Kingdom of God and his righteousness; ecologists call for ecological justice and challenge us to change our current destructive practices to save our beloved planet; human rights defenders call on us to act with respect for others. These proclaimers call the world to change, to make a change to prevent our own destruction.  However, like in Jesus’ time, the world does not want to listen to the proclaimers’ music nor their wailing and remain impassive in the face of destruction.  

Sisters and brothers, Jesus and all the proclaimers of justice invite us to participate in the game of justice. Will we respond or be unresponsive? Let’s remember what Jesus tells us, “Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.” Amen.

image: https://church.mt/the-gospel-of-the-day-11th-december-3/