One of the most comforting truths about our Savior Jesus Christ is that though being fully God and fully righteous, and though hating every form and vestige of sin, He willingly lived among us for thirty three long years. And while especially during those last three plus years, Jesus encountered increasingly evil resistance, opposition and malice against Him, He never called down His angel armies to destroy them/us.
To help us all appreciate His steadfastness of holiness and righteousness and mercy and restraint and lovingkindness, etc., I want to make sure in this post that we all understand how He assessed the general populations among whom He ministered. I’m also hoping this understanding will help us be steadfast as we seek to know and follow our Savior in the midst of a very similar generation.
"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 collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.” - Mat 11:16-19
This is one of the first judgments in the gospels voiced by our Lord re: the unrighteous judgment they were guilty of towards both John the Baptist and Jesus. They were quick to criticize among themselves and take up an offense – very much influenced by their peers and the mob mentality of those days.
But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; - Mat 12:39
This rebuke is in response to some of the Scribes and Pharisees who told Jesus they wanted to see a sign from him (vs. 38), but in fact they had already seen or known of many and their hearts were just as hardened as they ever were. Jesus then made clear to them that they will be held accountable at the judgment for their response to Him, who was far greater than the greatest heroes of the Old Testament era:
"The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. "The Queen of the South will rise up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. - Mat 12:41, 42
Finally in this conversation, Jesus speaks to the great increase of demonic spirits that such hard heartedness invites or opens a door to:
"Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation." - Matthew 12:45 Please note He labels this generation as evil.
Some time later, some Pharisees and Sadducees ask Jesus for a sign, again having been absolutely unaffected by the ones they had already seen or heard of. Here is His response:
"An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah." And He left them and went away. - Matthew 16:4
In Matthew 17 we are told about Jesus’s transfiguration while having a conversation with Moses and Elijah. Peter, James and John are watching in amazement. When they travel back down the mountain they encounter a crowd of people, among whom was a desperate father of a demonized son. He had asked the other nine disciples to cure or heal or perhaps cast the demon out of his son and they could not. When this father recounts this request and failure to Jesus, Jesus responds to the man and all those watching and listening in this way re: the general population among whom this man lived, And Jesus answered and said, "You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me." - Matthew 17:17 Jesus does not blame the son for this awful demonized condition. He rather blames the generation of the father, who opened doors to the demonic invading their children’s lives – because of their perversion and unbelief. (see Mark 9:19 & Luke 9:41).
What might have seemed like an innocent question regarding paying taxes to someone less discerning, in actuality Jesus said - this question came out of malice or wicked hearts,
“But Jesus perceived their malice (or wickedness), and said, “Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites?” Matthew 22:18
Matthew 23 is one of the hardest hitting chapters in the Bible – full of rebukes from Jesus for the Pharisees, hypocrites, and scribes. And at the end He includes their generation in the coming judgment for their many sins: "Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. - Mat 23:36, 37, 38
Because of the context of this next passage in the gospel of Mark it appears to be the third time Jesus refers to His generation in Israel as adulterous,
"For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels." - Mar 8:38 This does not necessarily mean they were all committing marital adultery, though assuredly some were. But rather that they were all committing spiritual adultery by caring more about what their peers thought and felt than what God thought and felt. They feared man and sought to please man far more than they feared God and sought to please God.
Another way Jesus described His generation or the generation He ministered to in Israel is that of being “wicked”,
“As the crowds were increasing, He began to say, "This generation is a wicked generation; it seeks for a sign, and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah. - Luke 11:29 Jesus gladly and mercifully worked signs and miracles throughout His ministry. But He had high expectations for how people were to respond to them. Evidently most of those He ministered to did not respond appropriately. And thus when they asked for yet another one He declared their motives were out of wicked hearts.
Jesus made it clear to His disciples that this generation despite all He did for them would reject Him,
"But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. - Luke 17:25
All of this to say, the people that our Lord mercifully ministered to for three and a half years were in His words: guilty of unrighteous judgment and hard hearted criticism; evil and adulterous, wicked, perverted, unbelieving, sinful, hard hearted and full of malice. Thankfully He stayed the course and remained steadfast in His obedience to the full and complete will of God in the midst of such madness. May we do the same by His wonderful enabling grace.
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