28. No one ever born on this earth is greater than John. But whoever is least important in God's kingdom is greater than John.
29. Everyone had been listening to John. Even the tax collectors had obeyed God and had done what was right by letting John baptize them.
30. But the Pharisees and the experts in the Law of Moses refused to obey God and be baptized by John.
31. Jesus went on to say:What are you people like? What kind of people are you?
32. You are like children sitting in the market and shouting to each other,“We played the flute,but you would not dance!We sang a funeral song,but you would not cry!”
33. John the Baptist did not go around eating and drinking, and you said, “John has a demon in him!”
34. But because the Son of Man goes around eating and drinking, you say, “Jesus eats and drinks too much! He is even a friend of tax collectors and sinners.”
35. Yet Wisdom is shown to be right by what its followers do.
36. A Pharisee invited Jesus to have dinner with him. So Jesus went to the Pharisee's home and got ready to eat.
37. When a sinful woman in that town found out that Jesus was there, she bought an expensive bottle of perfume.
38. Then she came and stood behind Jesus. She cried and started washing his feet with her tears and drying them with her hair. The woman kissed his feet and poured the perfume on them.
39. The Pharisee who had invited Jesus saw this and said to himself, “If this man really were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him! He would know that she is a sinner.”
40. Jesus said to the Pharisee, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”“Teacher, what is it?” Simon replied.
41. Jesus told him, “Two people were in debt to a moneylender. One of them owed him five hundred silver coins, and the other owed him fifty.