23. And anyone who is not offended because of Me is blessed.”
24. After John’s messengers left, He began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swaying in the wind?
25. What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft robes? Look, those who are splendidly dressed and live in luxury are in royal palaces.
26. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and far more than a prophet.
27. This is the one it is written about:Look, I am sending My messengerahead of You; he will prepare Your way before You.
28. I tell you, among those born of women no one is greater than John, but the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”
29. (And when all the people, including the tax collectors, heard this, they acknowledged God’s way of righteousness, because they had been baptized with John’s baptism.
30. But since the Pharisees and experts in the law had not been baptized by him, they rejected the plan of God for themselves. )
31. “To what then should I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like?
32. They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to each other:We played the flute for you,but you didn’t dance;we sang a lament,but you didn’t weep!
33. For John the Baptist did not come eating bread or drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon! ’
34. The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners! ’
35. Yet wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”
36. Then one of the Pharisees invited Him to eat with him. He entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table.
37. And a woman in the town who was a sinner found out that Jesus was reclining at the table in the Pharisee’s house. She brought an alabaster jar of fragrant oil
38. and stood behind Him at His feet, weeping, and began to wash His feet with her tears. She wiped His feet with the hair of her head, kissing them and anointing them with the fragrant oil.