|
THE NORTHERN KENTUCKY SEARCHER VOLUME 5, NUMBER 5, FEBRUARY 6, 2005 YOU CAN’T PLEASE EVERYONE Both Matthew and Luke give us an account of a time when John the Baptist was in prison and he sent two of his disciples to question Jesus. This account is found in Matthew 11 and Luke 7. The question that John sent them to ask was this, “Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?” Jesus told them to go back and report to John what they were seeing and what they were hearing. That would be ample evidence to provide the boost that John needed. Jesus continued on and praised John and connected him to the prophecy of Malachi 4:5, which spoke of the coming again of Elijah. Then the Lord addressed the various reactions that John received and that He was receiving, particularly among the Pharisees and the lawyers. In Matthew 11:16-19, we read, “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places, who call out to the other children, and say, 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, Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax-gatherers and sinners! Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.” This is quite an interesting comparison that Jesus makes. He is likening that unbelieving generation to contrary children in the marketplace who refuse to play with the other children. One group holds up to their lips imaginary pipes as though they were playing wedding songs, but the contrary group of children refuses to play along and dance. So the other group changes and mourns and weeps and wails, playing as if at a funeral, but the contrary group won’t join in that either. No matter which way they go, one group just won’t accept it. It was the same with this contrary, unbelieving generation. John came neither eating or drinking, in the solemn, austere manner of the children playing at the funeral, and the Jewish leaders would not accept it. Jesus came eating and drinking and they wouldn’t accept that. They accused Jesus of being a “a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax-gatherers and sinners!” They couldn’t be pleased – they wouldn’t be pleased. However, the results of John’s ministry demonstrated the wisdom of the course he had followed, and the results of Jesus’ ministry were proving the wisdom of His course. But the unbelieving leaders of the Jews just wouldn’t be satisfied. I have found it to be a difficult, but important, lesson to learn. Even Jesus couldn’t and didn’t please everyone, and if He didn’t do it, why should we think that we can? If you are an elder of the church and don’t call someone who has been missing for a while or is sick, you don’t care. If you do call, you are meddling. If the decision is made to withdraw from an unfaithful member who has been pleaded with to return, some will say you acted too quickly; others will say you waited too long. If a decision has to be made concerning the color of the walls of a building, or the carpet, or even the shingles on the roof, someone won’t like it. If you are an adult bible class teacher and choose to go verse by verse, there will be some who think it should be done paragraph by paragraph, or thought by thought. If you go paragraph by paragraph or thought by thought, some will think you should go verse by verse. If you teach children and give them homework, some parents will think you give too much, some not enough, and some that you shouldn’t give any at all. If you are a preacher and try to be enthusiastic and put everything you have into a sermon, some will say you are too loud. If you try to tone it down, some will say you are too soft. If you rebuke, you are too harsh. If you comfort and exhort, you need to be harder. In the pew during worship there may very well be some who think you sing too loudly, or maybe off-key. If you are a parent with small children, there are inevitably going to be those who think they could do a better job than you are doing as far as disciplining your child in services is concerned. If you try to calm a child who is acting there in the pew, some will think you should take the child out immediately. If you take the child out and administer the necessary discipline or care of some kind and bring the child back in – and do it again if they act up again, there will be some who think you are disruptive. On and on and on we could go, but I think we get the idea. No matter what you do, you cannot please everybody. It will drive you nuts if you think you have too. I can tell you that from experience. When you really think about it, there is only One that we must absolutely strive to please and that is God. Paul wrote in Galatians 1:10, “For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.” The only thing we can really do is to try our very best to be pleasing to God. Be ourselves in His service and know and appreciate the fact that the God we love and serve wants us to succeed. He will not pick us apart as we sometimes tend to pick each other apart. If there is anyone who truly knows what is important and what is not; what matters and what does not, it is He. How much more beneficial and Christ-like would it be to offer a word of encouragement instead of a word of complaint; a word of thanks for effort put forth, instead of a “why didn’t you do it this way?” Greg Litmer
|