Luke 7v33

For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil.

This verse is part of a passage, from verses 31-35, where Jesus is reacting to the Pharisees and lawyers (also called scribes) decision to reject God’s counsel or advice, as we saw in the previous section. The passage starts with Jesus asking the question: “Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation?” (v31). The answer is that they are like children – daring each other to be just like themselves, even though exactly what that means can change dramatically from one moment to the next.

In this verse, Jesus shows their inconsistency in criticising God’s prophets. John was supposed by the Pharisees to have a devil because he didn’t drink wine or eat some types of food, but Jesus was supposed to have a devil for exactly the opposite – drinking wine and eating with sinners.

The truth is that neither had a devil, but exactly the opposite. Both were serving God in the way that they had been called to do. John found the formula that worked in the time and place that God had called him to, and Jesus used the formula that worked for those He was ministering to. As the Apostle Paul was to say later, “unto the Jews I became as a Jew . . . To them that are without law, as without law . . . To the weak became I as weak . . . And this I do for the gospel's sake” (1^st Corinthians 9v20-23) – showing that God motivates the most appropriate way to minister depending on the time, place and audience.