The Reason People Reject Christ
The Parable of the Stubborn Children
To what then shall I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.”
For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, “He has a demon.” The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, “Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.
Luke 7:31-35
The Danger of Not Being Right
I read an article recently entitled “The Seven Reasons Why You Don't Have to Be Right.” It explained why a person does not need to be right, even claiming that the most human destruction is caused by man's obsessive need to be right.
The article, from a secular website, criticized the need to be right especially in religion—needing to be right about God and beliefs. It portrayed this as negative, arguing that not having to be right encourages growth and change.
I understand the author's point: we shouldn't be harmful in our quest to be right. We should listen to alternative views. But from a Christian perspective, especially about God, being right is a matter of life and death.
When it comes to who God is and what God says, getting it right is not philosophical speculation. Knowing the right things about Jesus is a matter of life and death. We need to be right about Christ.
The Context: Religious Leaders Reject Jesus
The whole passage in verses 31-35 deals with rejecting Jesus. The Pharisees and lawyers—these religious leaders who devoted their lives to interpreting God's law—were rejecting Jesus.
They weren't rejecting him because of truths they knew about him. They were rejecting him because they were wrong about Jesus.
That's why needing to be right—or avoiding being wrong—is a matter of life and death. If we are wrong about Jesus, there is a huge problem.
The Urgent Question
With that in mind, here's a specific, urgent question: What do you know to be true about Jesus? What does Jesus actually mean to you?
This question applies whether you're brand new to the faith or seasoned—someone who's claimed to be a Christian for a long time.
Imagine how this fits into the book of Luke as a whole. The Gospel's goal is to provide Theophilus with certainty about who Jesus is. He's been taught things about Jesus, but does he know the truth?
