Come to Me
To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others: Matthew 11:16 · Berean Standard Bible
Jesus compares the people of His generation to children sitting in the marketplace, calling out and complaining to each other. Nothing makes them happy.
Jesus is pointing out a frustrating pattern: no matter what God does, some people find a reason to reject it.
Jesus speaks to the crowd.
Jesus uses a familiar scene -- grumpy kids who refuse to play any game -- to describe people who reject God's messengers no matter how they come.
Jesus introduces a parable comparing 'this generation' (ten genean tauten) to children (paidiois) sitting in marketplaces who call out to one another, illustrating the fickleness and unresponsiveness of His contemporaries.
The marketplace (agorais) was the social center of ancient towns. The comparison to quarreling children suggests that this generation's rejection of both John and Jesus stems from petulant dissatisfaction rather than principled objection.
Jesus addresses the crowds with a parable about their generation.
Jesus turns to a vivid everyday image -- children squabbling in the marketplace -- to expose the real problem with His generation: nothing satisfies them because they are not genuinely seeking God.
14And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come.
15He who has ears, let him hear.
16To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:
17‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’
18For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’
Read all of Matthew 11 — John the Baptist doubts from prison. Cities refuse to repent. And in the middle of it all, Jesus offers rest to the weary.
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