25
Or were you expecting to see a man dressed in expensive clothes? No, people who wear beautiful clothes and live in luxury are found in palaces.
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Were you looking for a prophet? Yes, and he is more than a prophet.
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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.’
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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!”
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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.
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But the Pharisees and experts in religious law rejected God’s plan for them, for they had refused John’s baptism.
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“To what can I compare the people of this generation?” Jesus asked. “How can I describe them?
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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.’
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For John the Baptist didn’t spend his time eating bread or drinking wine, and you say, ‘He’s possessed by a demon.’
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The Son of Man, on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, ‘He’s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’
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But wisdom is shown to be right by the lives of those who follow it. ”