Charles Spurgeon Commentary Luke 7:29-32

"And all the people when they heard, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected for themselves the counsel of God, being not baptized of him. Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation, and to what are they like? They are like unto children that sit in the marketplace, and call one to another; who say, We piped unto you, and ye did not dance; we wailed, and ye did not weep." — Luke 7:29-32 (ASV)

And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, not being baptized by him. And the Lord said, To what then shall I liken the men of this generation? And to what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped to you, and you have not danced; we have mourned to you, and you have not wept.

These children could not agree as to what game they would play.

"Come," they said, "let us imitate a wedding; we will pipe, and you can dance." But the others would not dance. "Well," they said, "let us play at something. Let us imitate a funeral; we will be the mourners." Then the others would not weep. They would agree to nothing that was proposed. And that is the point of the Savior's analogy: that there are multitudes of people who always quarrel with any kind of ministry that God may send to them.

This man's style is much too florid; he has a superabundance of the flowers of oratory.

That other man is much too dull; there is nothing interesting about his discourses. This man is too coarse; he is so rough as even to be vulgar. That other man is too refined, and uses language which shoots over people's heads.

It is easy to find fault when you want to do so. Any stick will do to beat a dog, and any kind of excuse will do to allow your conscience to escape from the message of an earnest ministry.

Our Lord told the people that this was the way they had acted toward him and John the Baptist.

And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him. And the Lord said, Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation and to what are they like?

They are like children sitting in the marketplace, at play; the playing of children is often according to the manners and customs of grown up people.