The children are disagreeing about what games they want to play. One group wants to play music and dance and the other wants to be more serious, maybe something competitive, so, they argue and pout. They just can’t seem to get together on what they want.

This is to what Jesus compares “this generation”  when it comes to the immature way that both he and John the Baptist are accepted.

John comes in all dour and sober with a weird diet and scratchy clothes. He’s old-school, stern, and demanding. They want to play music and dance. They want John to lay off the hellfire and loosen up a bit.

Jesus comes in affable and genial, never met a party he didn’t like as long as everyone was invited. He’s not serious enough. They’d like for him to tone it down a little bit.

Perhaps these are the ways that Christianity will always be perceived. For some the faith is an individualistic, stifling, demanding religion. For others, the faith is always a response to the inclusiveness of Jesus, telling us that ministering to the least of these is how we become the body of Christ.