Jesus had just called John "much more than a prophet" (Luke 7:26). Yet the Pharisees and lawyers had "rejected the counsel of God against themselves" by refusing John's baptism (Luke 7:30). Jesus asks for a picture that fits such people before He gives one. Barnes, who refers this verse to his notes on Matthew 11:16-19, says Christ here sets out "to reprove the inconsistency and fickleness of that age of people." Matthew Henry puts the question this way: "What can I think of absurd enough to represent them by?" The first question looks for a comparison; the second presses on what these people are really like.

Jesus answers His own questions with a picture: "They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace," who complain, "We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept" (Luke 7:32). He then applies it. John came "neither eating bread nor drinking wine," and they said, "He hath a devil"; the Son of man came "eating and drinking," and they called Him "a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners" (Luke 7:33-34). He closes: "But wisdom is justified of all her children" (Luke 7:35). Luke records no reply from the crowd.

The picture comes from the street games of children. Barnes says Jesus "refers here to the plays or sport of children," who probably imitated a wedding with lively music and, he thinks, also a mournful funeral, while one group sullenly refused to join either game.

Publicans were collectors of taxes. Barnes calls them tax-gatherers, counted "the worst kind of people," which is why it stands out that they "justified God" by being baptized while the religious leaders refused (Luke 7:29-30). Matthew records a shorter form of the question, "But whereunto shall I liken this generation?" (Matthew 11:16); Luke adds the second question, "and to what are they like?"

God called His people in two very different ways. John came with a hard, simple life and a call to repent. Jesus came "eating and drinking," and was called "a friend of publicans and sinners" (Luke 7:34). This generation found a reason to reject both. The problem was not the messengers but the hearts that would not respond to either one.

Yet God's wisdom still bears fruit. "Wisdom is justified of all her children" (Luke 7:35). Barnes explains that "the children of wisdom are the wise," those who understand, and they approve God's way with John and with Jesus. Luke has just shown who these are: the people and the publicans who "justified God" (Luke 7:29). The very next scene shows a woman "which was a sinner" receiving Jesus while a Pharisee holds back (Luke 7:36-50).