Daily Bible Reading 25th June 2026 // Luke 7:24-35
24 When John's messengers had gone, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 25 What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who are dressed in splendid clothing and live in luxury are in kings' courts. 26 What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 27 This is he of whom it is written,
“‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
who will prepare your way before you.’
28 I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” 29 (When all the people heard this, and the tax collectors too, they declared God just, having been baptized with the baptism of John, 30 but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.)
31 “To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? 32 They are like children sitting in the market-place and calling to one another,
“‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’
33 For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ 34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ 35 Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.”
Our Lord's words about John the Baptist serve to set the prophet's own doubts in proper perspective and show us in a most encouraging manner that such doubts (as we may often ourselves have, from time to time) do not detract from the divine estimate of our work and witness for Him. It is as if Jesus were saying, 'Doubts notwithstanding, John is one of the greatest and most honoured of all My servants'. Is this a word of cheer and heartening to some despondent servant of God today?
What follows in 31ff shows us a very different attitude to Jesus, and may well be summed up as describing the unreasonableness and perversity of unbelief. Jesus compares that generation to children in the market-place, playing at weddings and funerals, complaining to one another because they 'would not play'. It is a familiar scene: the children are tired and bored and nothing will please them: the one thing or the other. The point of the comparison here is obvious: the joyous and the solemn notes of the gospel. John's message had been solemn enough in its severity and notes of judgment - a searching, piercing word, touching heart and conscience, summoning men to repentance, bringing the terrors of the unseen world as they were made to think of the doom of unbelievers and the awful end of a godless life. Such was John's message, and they did not, in the main, respond. On the other hand, Christ had stressed the wooing, tender grace of the gospel, its attractiveness, its wonder and glory, and still they had not responded. This is the force of Jesus' words in 33, 34, and they are of wide application, as the next Note will indicate.