In the previous chapter Jesus gave his disciples instruction and sent them out to proclaim the coming kingdom of heaven. John heard from prison what Jesus was doing and he sent his disciples to question him: “Are you the coming one?” Jesus answered them with Scripture being fulfilled by his works; namely, Isaiah 31:5f and Isaiah 61:1. Someone looking for the Messiah to come would be looking for fulfillment of these prophecies. But there is another prophecy that has been fulfilled and is being fulfilled. Jesus only states the first half of the prophecy because it is this half that relates to John the Baptist; the propecy is Malachi 3:1. The second half of the prophecy is already fulfilled in inauguration but not yet in consumption. The second half of the prohecy is the day of the Lord, when he sits down on his glorious thrown and all things are made new. Jesus calls John the best man that has ever lived, yet he is not greater than the citizens in the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus then compares the present generation to children playing in the market place. He says that they are fickle. What they complained about in John was the opposite complaint they had about Jesus. They were unhappy with either man and it really had nothing to do with the things that they complained about. Jesus denounced the unrepentant cities in which he performed miracles and preached the good news of the kingdom of heaven. He said that the cities of Tyre, Sidon and Sodom would have repented if these miracles had been preformed in them and will be better off at the judgment than Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum; all Jewish cities. Tyre and Sidon were gentile cities and Sodom was destroyed by God (Genesis 19:1-29) for its wickedness.
After denouncing these cities he gives praise to the Father for drawing the simple minded. Jesus gives the Father absolute credit for everything that he had and said that no one knows him except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except him, yet there are some whom Jesus will give revelation. Jesus then calls the weary and heavy-laden to come to him for rest. Rest from what? Rest from trying to earn entry into the kingdom of heaven. The good news is that the kingdom of heaven is a free gift to all who come to Jesus Christ.
