• “To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and 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 7:31ff).
• There is nothing capable of enrapturing the Pharisees, nothing that will enthrall them, beguile, captivate them. They extinguish what might compel them to ecstasy, they dismiss what might dismay them. The subtle shift from sober orthodoxy to spiritual lethargy has passed unnoticed. Dorothy Sayers, in a fit of pure genius, once wrote: “The sixth deadly sin is named…Sloth. The world calls it Tolerance; but in hell it is called Despair. It is the sin which believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, loves nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, and only remains alive because there is nothing for which it would die.” I shared that with a younger friend several years back and he wrote back, “that’s my generation.”
• Of course, it’s every generation. Terrified of being caught in some foolish enthusiasm, where open-hearted, childlike sincerity becomes the target of snark and ridicule, we learn to dismiss the things that might enchant and enthrall us. Or, having once given our hearts away, and having had our hearts pierced, we decide we will never again be taken. “No man’s fool” is a phrase my father’s generation applied to that mindset. It was usually a term of praise, yet Lewis once asked, what’s the point of always “seeing through” things if we never actually see anything?
• Jesus enthralled all who were still capable of being enthralled. To some he gave that ability again. When he said to the disciples “come and see” it was not so much about where he was sleeping that night, but about the possibility of believing again. What was too good to be true had become true. Those who gave away their hearts, those who followed, were soon beguiled, captivated, enraptured. But you had to accept the gamble. You had to shove all your earnings to the center of the table and throw down your cards.
• Stop guarding yourself. To follow Christ is to entrust yourself to him, then offer yourself as a living sacrifice. Yes, you will lose your life. But only then will you find it.
-Pastor Eric