urned from him to Jesus
as from the lesser to the Greater; as from the priest to the great High
Priest, as from the herald to the King. But Pharisees and lawyers were
present, those of the class that John had so vehemently denounced as of
a generation of vipers, and those who had rejected the counsel of God in
refusing to heed the Baptist's call to repentance.[576]

At this point the Master resorted to analogy to make His meaning
clearer. He compared the unbelieving and dissatisfied generation to
fickle children at play, disagreeing among themselves. Some wanted to
enact the pageantry of a mock wedding, and though they piped the rest
would not dance; then they changed to a funeral procession and essayed
the part of mourners, but the others would not weep as the rules of the
game required. Ever critical, ever skeptical, by nature fault-finders
and defamers, hard of hearing and of heart, they grumbled. John the
Baptist had come amongst them like the eremitic prophets of old, as
strict as any Nazarite, refusing to eat with the merry-makers or drink
with the convivial, and they had said "He hath a devil." Now came the
Son of Man,[577] without austerity or hermit ways, eating and drinking
as a normal man would do, a guest at the houses of the people, a
participant in the festivities of a marriage party, mingling alike with
the publicans and the Pharisees--and they complained again, saying:
"Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and
sinners!" The Master explained that such inconsistency, such wicked
trifling with matters most sacred, such determined opposition to truth,
would surely be revealed in their true light, and the worthlessness of
boasted learning would appear. "But," said He, "wisdom is justified of
all her children."

From reproof for unbelieving individuals He turned to unappreciative
communities, and upbraided the cities in which He had wrought so many
mighty works, and wherein the people repented not: "Woe unto thee,
Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were
done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented
long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, It shall be more
tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. And
thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to
hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been
done in Sodom, it would have remained until this