I grew up playing music with my family. My grandpa played the fiddle, Dad played the guitar and the bass, my brother played the fiddle and I played guitar. We would often get together with others in the community and play for hours on end. As we grew up and went about our lives, we would still get together at certain times and play. One of those times would always be around Christmas. We would sit in the living room at my parents’ house and start to play. “Start to play” is the operative phrase. We would start a song, get part of the way through it, and then realize we didn’t remember it all. “That’s all I know of that one” was a frequent statement. For a bunch of amateurs like us, that’s not all that important. We still had a good time and it brought good memories. But imagine being a professional musician in a band. Forgetting how the song is played, not remembering how it ends, or forgetting the words wouldn’t go well.

John the Baptist had an incredibly important role. He was the one sent from God to prepare the people for the arrival of Jesus. He called Israel to turn their hearts toward God and be ready for what God was about to do; namely prepare the people for the arrival of the Messiah. A lot of folks went out to see John at the Jordan. They heard him make this plea. They heard the warnings and wanted to be part of this new thing that God was about to do. Many of them submitted to his baptism. Others, specifically the Jewish leadership, went out to see him, heard the words, but rejected his purpose supposing that they didn’t need his baptism.

Jesus knew the importance of John’s work and affirms that work in his teaching and in his actions. It is in the context of praising the work of John that Jesus addresses those who didn’t see their need to listen to the message John carried, those who didn’t recognize what God was doing. We find these words spoken by Jesus in Luke chapter seven.

 “To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another,

             “‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;

        we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’

For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.” (Luke 7:31-35)

It seems that Jesus is pointing out a real troubling issue in the hearts the Pharisees and teachers. They believed they knew exactly how God would or would not work. Maybe even worse than thinking they knew, they wanted to determine how God would or would not act. They seemed to think that God would dance to their tune.

This kind of thinking is dangerous, and quite honestly a real temptation for us still today. It is a great thing to learn about God. It is a great thing to know God. Pursuing deeper knowledge of his character, his heart, his will for our lives is a great way to spend our time. Continuing to deepen our relationship with him is something that he wants from and for us. He wants us to know him. In addressing those in Athens, Paul makes that very clear. “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,” (Acts 17:24-27).

We often want a god we can define. It is important to realize that as much as we may come to know about him, we don’t determine his actions. We don’t define him. Although we may not say this out loud to anyone, we would like a god that we can control. Somehow we are tempted to think that if we could just get God to do what we want, if he would just dance to our tune, everything would be better. This impulse of being like God and seeking control is the temptation that was so attractive to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. This is the impulse that made idolatry so attractive to Israel. This same impulse makes idolatry attractive to humanity now.

While that may be what we want, God knows what we need. We need God to define us, to direct us, to lead us, and to rescue us. As we make our way through Scripture, we see God in control of defining his people. In Genesis we see God rename (define) Abram to Abraham, and Jacob to Israel. In Exodus, God tells Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” In other words, God is the one beyond our definition. In Mark 3, Jesus selects twelve of his disciples and designates (names) them as “apostles.” (Mark 3:14) To early Christians, Peter writes, “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (1 Peter 2:10) We may want a god we can define, but what we desperately need is the God who defines us. God knows this. God knows our limitations and that if left to our own direction; we would move ourselves away from him. Perhaps we would like God to dance to our tune. The problem is that we don’t know the whole song. What he is asking for us to do is to follow his lead. He is the one who knows where everything is headed. He is the one who will make all things right. What he wants from us is to grow deeper in relationship with him, trust him enough to follow where he leads and move as he directs.