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"To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the market
places and calling out to others:
`We played the flute for you,
and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge,
and you did not mourn.'
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, `He has a demon'. The Son of
Man came eating and drinking, and they say, `Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend
of tax collectors and sinners'." (11: 16-19, N.I.V.).
"This generation" is a significant expression, used by the Lord 16 times and described
by Him as "evil and adulterous" (12: 39), "faithless and perverse" (17: 17). They were
the most favoured generation in the whole history of Israel, as they had the personal
ministry of their Messiah. Hence their tremendous responsibility and terrible sin of
rejecting Him.
The Lord had often watched children playing in the market place and the illustration is
so apt and true that it could not have been manufactured by the Evangelist or anyone else.
Israel's righteous leaders were like peevish children with narrow ideas of games, for
whom nothing was right. The Baptist comes with his sternness and they want him to play
at dancing and festivals. The Lord Jesus comes, taking part in social joy, and they want
Him to play at funerals. In addition to this, they malign both John and the Lord, but
"wisdom is proved right by her actions" (11: 19). The asceticism of John and the lack of
it in the Lord were equally right under the control of a God of wisdom.
The Lord Jesus now discusses the reactions of the cities in which He performed many
of His mighty works:
"Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles had been
performed, because they did not repent. `Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!
If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they
would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more
bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you'." (11: 20-22, N.I.V.).
Our knowledge of Palestine during the life of Christ is meager and nothing is known
of Chorazin or of the Lord's ministry there, which goes to show that some of His great
witness is unrecorded. Tyre and Sidon were wicked cities (Isa. 23:; Jer. 25: 22;
47: 4; Ezek. 26: 3-7; 28: 12-22) and have passed into oblivion many centuries
ago. Yet verse 22 assues us that there is a future experience for them on the "day of
judgment".
No human being can judge another on the grounds of what he would have done if
circumstances and conditions had been different. But a God of righteousness can and
will do so, because He knows all the activities of the mind of a person as well as their
words and actions, and just what their response would be under different conditions.
Christ goes on to treat with Capernaum, and this city was doubly blessed because it
was the Lord's home as well as witnessing His miracles and signs. He makes the
astounding statement that if these miracles had been performed in Sodom, it would have