Why is it that the people heard the call of the flute but did not dance, and heard the call of the dirge but did not mourn? Because they were not prepared to hear the call and thus neither danced nor mourned. Jesus uses these examples to show how people were not prepared for his coming or that of his chief witness John. People heard the call of both John and Jesus and saw what each had done, and yet, they either rejected the message or were indifferent to it. Most people at that time were so unprepared that they said John was possessed by a demon and Jesus was a glutton and a drunkard.
There are countless reasons why the people of long ago were so unprepared for the coming of Jesus and his call to a new way of life. Among those most unprepared to hear the call of Jesus were the Pharisees. By the time that Jesus arrived on the scene, the Pharisees were so corrupt in their own way of life that they did not perceive Jesus as the coming of the promised messiah. Rather, they saw Jesus as a threat to their greed and lust for power. Their corruption was so complete that it motivated their desire to kill Jesus.
Their violent response to Jesus is perhaps not all that surprising. On the one hand, the Pharisees held the seat of Moses, and their positions entitled them to cite the law of Moses. On the other hand, they intentionally misconstrued their authority to cite the Law as license to misappropriate the Law for their own purposes. They used the letter of the Law to impose hundreds of unnecessary and burdensome rules on the followers of Moses that they themselves did not follow. Instead, they violated the spirit of the Mosaic Law—love of God and love of neighbor—to protect their own power and wealth. Their corruption and hypocrisy ran so deep that Jesus branded the Pharisees whitened sepulchers—clean on the outside but full of decay and filth on the inside. They appeared righteous, but were guilty of predatory self-indulgence and evil deeds that violated the spirit of the Law (Mt 23:25-28).
In that light, it seems odd that Jesus would nevertheless tell his disciples “to do and observe all things whatsoever the Pharisees tell you, but do not follow their example” (Mt 23:3). This is just another way of saying that, while the Pharisees had authority to cite the Mosaic Law, they did not have a right to embezzle the Law and use it to promote false teaching. Thus, the disciples were under no obligation to follow the hypocritical interpretations and applications of the Law imposed by the Pharisees.
The question for us today during this Advent season of preparation is how to hear and respond to the call of Jesus. Jesus provides a clue with his claim that wisdom is vindicated by her works (Mt 11:19). If we want to hear the call and stay on the right path, we can look to Jesus. He is the standard for correct judgement (Mt 7:28-29; cf 9:6; 12:8). Do the works that Jesus does; love the way he loves; teach what he teaches; live the way he lives (Mt 28:19-20).
Jesus provides a compelling summary of all this when he says to his disciples, “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples…” (Jn 13:34-35). May the principle of love guide our Advent preparation for the coming of Jesus.
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