Same Old Tune

Luke 7:29-35 ESV

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 marketplace 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. ” 

The Pharisees rejected the idea that repentance applied to them. They were above that. They trusted in their religion and had become blind, more comfortable with the idol of their own making than with the Son of God standing before them. In the marketplace of the world, they had traded the wisdom of God for the wisdom of man. But some people, even tax collectors, were not confounded by their own thinking and desires, but responded to God's call.

Jesus likens the generation that rejects Him to children singing and playing a familiar tune. The lyrics of the songs mostly have the word "me" or "I" in them. They either never evolved beyond self, or sank into a muddled pool of futile thinking.