The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.
All Commentaries on Matthew 11:19 Go To Matthew 11
Hilary of Poitiers
AD 368
The whole of this speech is a reproach of unbelief, and arises out of the foregoing complaint; that the stiff-necked people had not learned by two different modes of teaching.
He is wisdom itself not by His acts, but by His nature. Many indeed evade that saying of the Apostle’s, “Christ is the wisdom and power of God,” by saying, that truly in creating Him of a Virgin the Wisdom and Power of God were shown mightily. Therefore that this might not be so explained, He calls Himself the Wisdom of God, shewing that it was verily He, and not the deeds relating to Him, of whom this was meant. For the power itself, and the effect of that power, are not the same thing; the efficient is known from the act.
Mystically; Neither did the preaching of John bend the Jews, to whom the law seemed burdensome in prescribing meats and drinks, difficult and grievous, having in it sin which He calls having a demon—for from the difficulty of keeping it they must sin under the Law. Nor again did the preaching of the Gospel with freedom of life in Christ please them—by which the hardships and burdens of the Law were remitted, and publicans and sinners only believed in it. Thus, then, so many and so great warnings of all kinds having been offered them in vain, they are neither justified by the Law, and they are cast off from grace; "Wisdom,” therefore, “is justified of her children,” by those, that is, who seize the kingdom of heaven by the justification of faith, confessing the work of wisdom to be just, that it has transferred its gift from the rebellious to the faithful.
