Jesus said to the crowds:
“To what shall I compare the people of this generation?
What are they like?
They are like children who sit in the marketplace and call to one another,

‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance.
We sang a dirge, but you did not weep.’

For John the Baptist came neither eating food nor drinking wine,
and you said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’
The Son of Man came eating and drinking and you said,
‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard,
a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’
But wisdom is vindicated by all her children.” Luke 7:31-35

Today’s reading is a very small one, yet it is very powerful. He is calling out the people of his time, right there. He is comparing them to children, and using their own logic to prove a point. The point he is driving home here is that people could not get past the outwardly gossip of the day to realize what they had in their midst. They had Jesus right there, trying to show them the way to the Father, yet they could not get past the fact that he was befriending sinners.

How many times in our own lives have we sat and judged someone else? We all have done this at some point in our lives, looked across the parking lot at someone, and judged them on the first impression. A mother, disheveled and sort of dragging a screaming child by the arm, we lay blame at the mom for not being “good enough” to keep her child behaving in public. The homeless man sitting on a park bench, we look at him in disgust because of the “life he couldn’t” maintain. All of these things, we make an assumption on, even before knowing the full back story, or getting to know the person.

Many people in that time period would do the same. Anything considered non-traditional, out of character, or even socially unacceptable was considered a folly. We to, in this day in age, do the same things. I can only imagine the number of times that people have judged me without knowing me. Instead of taking the time to get to know me personally, they would take a few passing glances and some gossip to put together my back story. That hurts my heart just thinking about it. I am human, and not without my sins, faults, and past, however, that is still no reason not to understand me for who I am. No one on this Earth is perfect. I know that I have put together the same conclusions in my life. Understanding that I should not be doing this, and trying to live a more open minded way is the only way to try to counteract this sinful way of thinking.

So, today, I close with this prayer, Lord, please help me to understand someone before passing my judgements upon them. Help me and others to see people for who they really are, people like me, who are broken and searching for your guiding light. Help me to see the good in those around me, and help me to be the example that you are calling me to be. Amen.