Everything is simple and obvious: a serious threat hangs over Israel. The prophet Isaiah does not begin calculating the probability of one outcome or another, or what there is to say about the numbers of Israelite and enemy troops... He turns to the One Person who can deal with the situation. And he receives a simple answer: “Thus says the Lord God: it shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass.” The key words here are “thus says the Lord”! If He has spoken, then there is nothing to fear.

Why do wisdom and understanding become an obstacle to salvation? Why was this God's good pleasure? We are used to seeing wisdom and understanding as a source of virtue. And this habit is not groundless, for every culture, and culture is precisely what forms our habits, is built on the multiplication of what is reasonable. This includes biblical culture: in it, understanding becomes an indispensable condition for knowing God, and therefore for salvation: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding" (Prov. 9:10). And this is very understandable to us.

But then Christ comes, and it turns out that something here is not right. Let us try to understand what exactly. Let us turn again to the book of Proverbs, this truly chief canonical book devoted to reason: "Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding, for her profit is better than the profit of silver, and her gain than fine gold" (Prov. 3:13,14). And again: "Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you; love her, and she will keep you. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding. Exalt her, and she will promote you; she will bring you honor when you embrace her. She will place on your head an ornament of grace; she will deliver to you a crown of glory" (Prov. 4:5-9). In these quotations, the greatness of the human being clothed with reason is expressed in the most obvious way.

Greatness... Yes, but Christ calls us to humility, for He Himself is meek and humble in heart. And for what purpose? The weightiest answer would come from the same book of Proverbs. Precisely while singing of human reason, it suddenly says, as if by chance: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding" (Prov. 3:5). With Christ, this glimmer will become a radiant stream of light, the stream of love ready to humble itself before its Beloved, because it wants nothing else.

The Pharisees refused to recognize either John the Baptist or the Lord Jesus Himself as messengers of God. Each of them, despite all their differences, displeased the Pharisees in some way. John the Baptist displeased them with his asceticism and his call to renew faith. The Lord... The Lord pleased them in nothing, in particular because He did not reject the repentance of sinful people whom the Pharisees considered doomed to perdition.

In reality, of course, behind this stood an unwillingness to accept the Good News, first of all because the Pharisees most wanted to look better than everyone else in their own eyes. The Gospel gives neither them nor anyone else such an opportunity. The Lord applies to them the image of children who do not weep at sad songs and do not rejoice at joyful ones. God, the Lord is saying by this, tries to communicate His word, His will, the Good News to the Pharisees in this way and that, by many different paths. But they react to nothing, and this reveals precisely their unwillingness to respond to God's call.

The point is not what John the Baptist is like or what Jesus Himself is like. Those who seek the Word of God will in one way or another be able to find and accept it, the Lord concludes with His words, "wisdom is justified by her children": some came to Christ through the Baptist's preaching, others recognized the Savior in Him for themselves... Whoever has ears and wants to hear will hear.

In our time this Gospel fragment remains exceptionally relevant. People often say: "I would believe, but..." Something is always unsatisfactory to the person who does not want to believe. Either there is too much bad in the Bible, since the truth about history is written there, or Christians are bad, or the commandments are strange... Christ's words apply precisely to such a position.