At this time – around AD 29 – there was a great divide among the people in the crowds listening to Jesus. Some “righteoused God” (in their inner beings God was right); others (“the Pharisees and the legal people”) were not convinced.
The underlying reason for this? The former had been “baptized by John’s baptism”; the latter had not “been baptized under him.” John the Baptist was deeply conscious of his own evil and deeply sorrowful for it. Those baptized by him had the same consciousness and sorrow. Not so those who heard John but were not “baptized under him.” These are noted by Luke as having “rejected the purpose of God.” What “purpose” is that?
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“To what then shall I liken the people of this generation, and what are they like? They are as it were infants sitting down in a marketplace and calling these to one another, ‘We piped you, and you did not dance; we lamented, and you did not weep.’ Because John the Baptist has come eating no bread, drinking no wine, and you state, ‘He has a mini-god.’ The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you state, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard and a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ "
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Jesus drew a parallel for those who “rejected the purpose of God” so that they might understand themselves – if possible. “Infants.” (limited understanding) “Sitting down.” (no pressure) “In the market place.” (lots and lots on offer) But they reject both dancing and weeping – and, maybe, everything in between. John the Baptist, deeply conscious of evil and deeply sorrowful, had been seen and heard and rejected. Jesus (to whom John had pointed), with the healing of all diseases and death and the sending away of all sins, was also being seen and heard and rejected. No response. No change.
"And wisdom is righteoused by all of her offspring.”
Jesus said that the "offspring" of "wisdom" actually do, in fact, "righteous wisdom" - endorse it in all their being. Those who are really wise endorse wisdom insside themselves.
In fact, one of the Pharisees was asking that he might eat with him and, coming into the Pharisee’s house, he sat down. And look and see! A woman who was in the city and a sinner, knowing well that he was seated down in the Pharisee’s house, treasuring an alabaster flask of perfume and standing behind near his feet weeping, began to drench his feet with her tears and was wiping them with the hair of her head and was kissing his feet and was anointing them in the perfume.
Why did this “Pharisee” ask Jesus to “eat with him”? Was he wise? Had he worked out who Jesus was? After all, he had just seen what had taken place during that day, Luke recorded it – Info AW. “In that same hour he healed many of diseases and sufferings and evil spirits, and he gave grace to many blind people to see.”
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In fact, seeing this, the Pharisee, his caller, said to himself, stating, “If this man was a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who touches him, in that she is a sinner.”
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This “Pharisee” knew a “sinner” when he saw one. He judged her a sinner and I feel sure that he was right.
He also judged Jesus to be very unwise in allowing this “sort of woman” to “touch him”. “A sinner.”
And Jesus, responding, said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” He in fact declared, “Teacher, say!”
What Jesus said to him will be in Info AY. But here and now we are able to see two things from the Pharisee’s abhorrence of being “touched” by “a sinner”. First, in his eyes he was too free from evil to be tainted by sin by being “touched” by her. Second, Jesus wanted her to “touch” him because he had come to save sinners. “The purpose of God.”?
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