“But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’” Matthew 11:16-17
I’ve never thought much of these words in Matthew’s Gospel. They just never really stood out to me. But, reading them recently, something struck me.
Jesus is talking about playing the flute for the current generation, but they neither dance nor mourn at the sound. What point is Jesus trying to make? All souls stand to one side or the other in this generation as in the one listening to Jesus. We are either ‘playing the flute’ or listening. If we choose to stand aside and listen, we must react better than the Pharisee and crowds before Jesus.
Jesus isn’t looking for an audience to listen. He is calling upon us to stand up and play. Play meaning that we are to ‘sing’ the song of Jesus’ words and teachings. We are to called to read the music of His Holy Words that all may hear. We are called to dance, to act upon what we have heard.
Sadly, today as 2,000 years ago, many will not dance nor mourn. They will be indifferent, hearing the notes but turning back to their lives with no reaction at all.
Jesus calls us, begs us to listen to the music and dance in the eternal life He gives. Life abundant beyond imagination. But, too many will harden their hearts so much in these days that the beat of the greatest music ever played will fall upon deaf ears. The soul will sit in the corner and wilt into death.
I get it. Truly, I do. I lived most of my life with the music playing all around me, friends calling me to listen and dance. But, I shut my ears despite the feeling within of my soul desiring to tap to the beat. If I had but once let my foot tap, how could things have changed? But, I shut my ears to God’s magnificent tune and my heart hardened. If I had not met my wife twenty-two years ago, my hardness would have destroyed me.
God will never stop playing His tune, He asks us to stand up and “play the flute“ even if it seems none are listening. We have the choose to stand and play or not.
This music we sing is the very life-beat of our soul. All we can do is ‘play the flute,’ it is up to the others to respond. It is up to those souls to get up and join or not. Their choice.
As you read this now, you are either playing the flute or the flute is being played to you. In other words, you are either sharing the word, the good news of Jesus, or you need someone to share it to you.
This is the background point of The Road of Faith. To ‘play the flute’ that someone will listen and stand up from their seat in the background to join the orchestra. This is the point of the whole journey in our RV, “Faith.” To go about ‘playing the flute’ that someone along Faith’s road may hear our song and come out of the darkness. That our story, Connie and my story, the story of our family and the reflections given to me by God may reach into that hardened heart and crack through that blood may flow again. That music may play in the beat of a heart alive again. That just one soul may stand up from the sidelines and dance.
There is no sitting on the sidelines in Jesus. You are either playing the flute to His arrangement or you are not. Everyone in God’s Kingdom will be ‘musicians.’ All are dancers. Those choosing to shut their ears to His song Will wail and cry…
Breaking this hardened heart is as simple as tapping your foot to the music.
Are you ‘playing the flute’, sitting to the side listening or turning your back to the music? I pray that no matter where you sit, you will hear His song and stand up to make the choice to follow Jesus.
Make it a resolution this year to ‘play the flute.’ Dance!