<p>11:17 <em>And say: We piped to you and you did not dance. We wailed and you did not mourn- </em>The Old Testament as well as the New is written in such a way as to encourage memorization, although this is often masked by the translation. There are several devices commonly used to assist in this. Not least is alliteration, i.e. similarly sounding syllables. &quot;We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced (<em>orchee-sasthe</em>); we have mourned unto you and ye have not lamented (<em>ekop-sasthe</em>)&quot; (Mt. 11:17) could be dynamically rendered: 'We piped for you, and you never&nbsp;<strong>stept</strong>; we dirged for you, and you never&nbsp;<strong>wept</strong>&quot;. We note that the Lord parallels the work of the children John&rsquo;s &lsquo;children&rsquo; or disciples, and His. Although both of them were somewhat negative about each other, the Lord saw both groups of children as doing the same work, despite a different culture and even doctrinal emphasis. The division in the town square was between the children begging the others to respond, and the children of this world who didn&rsquo;t want to, in the midst of those who didn&rsquo;t even have ears to hear and were just getting on with their worldly business and never &lsquo;heard&rsquo; the invitation from either group of children.</p>
<p>The Lord was speaking this whilst the disciples were away on their preaching tour. He could say that just as John&rsquo;s preparation of the way had not been responded to on the level of the whole &ldquo;generation&rdquo; or society, neither had His more upbeat and joyful invitation been accepted. Note that the call of the Gospel is a call to engage with the preacher, to dance in response to the tune piped. Community and fellowship are all part of response to the Gospel; it&rsquo;s not about delivering truths to an individual who then accepts them and has no further relationship with the preacher. This is why the father-son analogy is used for preaching and conversion later in the NT. There is the implication too that the initial preacher continues to call the tune, to direct the dancing of the convert, even after initial acceptance of the invitation.</p>
<p>Remember that the Lord is addressing those who had gone out to hear John preach (:7-9). He is implying that they had no actually responded to his call to them.&nbsp;</p>