24. After John's messengers had gone, Jesus began speaking to the crowds about John:What kind of person did you go out to the desert to see? Was he like tall grass blown about by the wind?
25. What kind of man did you really go out to see? Was he someone dressed in fine clothes? People who wear expensive clothes and live in luxury are in the king's palace.
26. What then did you go out to see? Was he a prophet? He certainly was! I tell you that he was more than a prophet.
27. In the Scriptures, God calls John his messenger and says, “I am sending my messenger ahead of you to get things ready for you.”
28. No one ever born on this earth is greater than John. But whoever is least important in God's kingdom is greater than John.
29. Everyone had been listening to John. Even the tax collectors had obeyed God and had done what was right by letting John baptize them.
30. But the Pharisees and the experts in the Law of Moses refused to obey God and be baptized by John.
31. Jesus went on to say:What are you people like? What kind of people are you?
32. You are like children sitting in the market and shouting to each other,“We played the flute,but you would not dance!We sang a funeral song,but you would not cry!”
33. John the Baptist did not go around eating and drinking, and you said, “John has a demon in him!”
34. But because the Son of Man goes around eating and drinking, you say, “Jesus eats and drinks too much! He is even a friend of tax collectors and sinners.”
35. Yet Wisdom is shown to be right by what its followers do.
36. A Pharisee invited Jesus to have dinner with him. So Jesus went to the Pharisee's home and got ready to eat.
37. When a sinful woman in that town found out that Jesus was there, she bought an expensive bottle of perfume.