Unable to recognise the true significance of the events of the time,
with deaf ears to the heavenly message which first the herald and then
the King had brought them, they fastened their attention on that which
was merely incidental: the asceticism of John, the social friendliness
of Jesus. Of the first they complained, because it was not like the
second; of the second they complained, because it was not like the
first. Any excuse for a complaint; no ear to hear nor soul to
appreciate the message of either. To what can He liken them? To a set
of children, sitting in the market-place indeed, but with no thought
of business in their heads: they are there only to amuse themselves;
and even in their games they are as unreasonable as they can be. One
set proposes to play a wedding, and the rest say, "No, we want a
funeral"; then, when the others take it up and start the game of
funeral, they change their tune, and say, "No, we prefer a wedding."
Nothing will please those who have no intention to be satisfied.
Caring nothing for the kingdom which John heralded, the multitude only
noticed the peculiarity of his garb, and the stern solitariness of his
life, and said he must be a lunatic. When the King Himself comes with
no such peculiarity, but mingling on familiar and friendly terms with
the people, still caring nothing for the kingdom which He preached,
they find fault with Him for the very qualities the absence of which
they deprecated in John. If they had acted, not as foolish children,
but as wise men, they would have recognised that both were right,
inasmuch as each was true to himself and to the position he filled. It
was right and fitting that the last of the old prophets should be
rugged and stern and solitary, even as the great Elijah, in whose
spirit and power he came. It was no less right and fit that the
Saviour-King of men should set out on new lines and introduce the new
dispensation in a manner suited to its distinctive features of freedom
and familiar friendliness. Thus, in the one case, and in the other,
"wisdom is justified of her children."