When I was a single man, my definition of a bad date was someone who would never tell you what they wanted to do—but always tell you what they didn't want to do.  The conversation often went like this:

"What would you like to do?" 

"Anything you want to do."

"Well, how about let's eat Chinese food tonight."

"No, I hate Chinese food, let's do something else."

"Okay, how about we eat a Mexican meal?"

"Yuck, that sounds awful tonight"."

"Okay, then what do you want to do?"

"It doesn't matter to me, really.  Just make a decision."

Finally, you find a place to eat and when you finished she would say; "What an awful dinner—you have horrible taste."

Sadly enough, our churches are full of "bad dates."  Quite willing to say what "not to do" and "what is wrong" with the leaders; yet, unwilling to be involved in leadership itself.

Those are the ones that Jesus was confronting in this reading.  They were religious observers—the least involved, yet the most critical.  The pious—that have a singular vision of "don't rock the boat"—also had a singular solution to Jesus as he continually presented himself to a new people. "We've done it this way for 2,000 years; we don't need to be rushing into change now."