Jesus and the Pharisees: from Luke 7:28-35

This is our twenty-third study. Please click HERE for an intro to this study.

Luke 7:28-35

28 “I say to you, among those born of women, there is no one greater than John; yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”  29 And when all the people and the tax-gatherers heard this, they acknowledged God’s justice, having been baptized with the baptism of John. 30 But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves, not having been baptized by John. 31 “To what then shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like? 32 “They are like children who sit in the market place and call to one another; and they say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’ 33 “For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine; and you say, ‘He has a demon!’ 34 “The Son of Man has come eating and drinking; and you say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man, and a drunkard, a friend of tax-gatherers and sinners!’ 35 “Yet wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”

Observations

Jesus here observed the Pharisees’ childish behavior. They rebuked His behavior of eating and drinking with sinners in order to befriend them. But they also rejected John’s more rigid behavior of abstinence, a behavior that they said Jesus should have. This reveals that they were rejecting anyone who was a true believer in God. They were revealing their pagan nature.

Application

We should be able to judge whether a person is a true Christian or not by their attitude toward good Christians. A pagan, like the Pharisees will always have a negative attitude toward any true Christian; they will always find something wrong with them.