Indeed there are some people who can never be pleased. Such were the Pharisees and lawyers. In their self-righteous smugness they are like spoiled children who would have neither the mourning called for by John nor the rejoicing offered by Jesus. They reproach the former for his austerity and the latter for his lack of it. They accept neither John's message of repentance nor Jesus' message of Good News. As such the Pharisees and lawyers could not rejoice over Jesus nor be grateful for His company and thus did not feel the need for forgiveness and conversion.

To Jesus, only those who knew themselves to be sinners and saw in Him one who took their sins away, would be thankful for His company among them. Thus the real children of God turned out to be the common people and not the religious and the learned.

In our lives we too may find it difficult to admit that we are in need of repentance. We can find ourselves giving excuses saying we are not ready now and that we will start tomorrow. Or we can find fault with others and not accept responsibility for our sins. But true membership in Jesus' new community means allowing ourselves to be befriended by Jesus now so that He can change our lives.