26. Were you looking for a prophet? Yes, and he is more than a prophet.
27. John is the man to whom the Scriptures refer when they say,‘Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,and he will prepare your way before you.’
28. I tell you, of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John. Yet even the least person in the Kingdom of God is greater than he is!”
29. When they heard this, all the people—even the tax collectors—agreed that God’s way was right, for they had been baptized by John.
30. But the Pharisees and experts in religious law rejected God’s plan for them, for they had refused John’s baptism.
31. “To what can I compare the people of this generation?” Jesus asked. “How can I describe them?
32. They are like children playing a game in the public square. They complain to their friends,‘We played wedding songs,and you didn’t dance,so we played funeral songs,and you didn’t weep.’
33. For John the Baptist didn’t spend his time eating bread or drinking wine, and you say, ‘He’s possessed by a demon.’