Greater Than the Greatest
John the Baptist was confused. He thought he was the one to prepare the way of the Messiah, whom he had identified as his cousin, Jesus. But John was in prison. How could it be? Had he made a mistake? He needed answers so he sent some of his followers to Jesus for reassurance that Jesus was, in fact, the Messiah.
Jesus gave them an answer for their master and, as they were leaving, spoke of him. He claimed that John was a prophet, but more than a prophet because he was the messenger who would precede the Messiah, preparing the way for Him. Then he wrapped up his comments with this enigmatic sentence: “I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
For his first-century audience, this was a conundrum to be sure. First of all, of the 48 prophets and 7 prophetesses mentioned in the Bible, Moses was always held to be the greatest by the Jewish community. There is even scriptural support for this in Deuteronomy 34:10 where we read: “there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face...” When Jesus called John, one commonly known more as a local eccentric than anything else, the greatest man who had ever lived, it jarred them to the bone. But it didn’t end there.
The next words out of Jesus’ mouth were: “yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” What could that mean? How could John be the greatest man alive and there be others still greater? Even with the advantage of hindsight, many of us might still be scratching our heads over this.
The answer centres in understanding that, with the coming of Jesus, God’s revelation of Himself took a sharp, unexpected turn. Until then, everything had been about the nation of Israel - “God’s Chosen People.” When Jesus came, the emphasis shifted entirely to a new entity - not a geopolitical one, but a spiritual one - the church. As the Messiah, Jesus was the one to usher in this new arrangement, this new covenant, this new model of human/divine relationship. As His forerunner, John the Baptist was the greatest prophet.
The confusion over Jesus’ statement clears when we understand that He stands at the divide between the old way and the new way. Looking back, John was the greatest man who ever lived and was honoured to prepare the way for the Messiah in the Jewish ethno-religious context. Looking forward, every believer in Jesus would be personally filled with the Spirit of God and given the honour of proclaiming Him and His message to the whole world. It is this that prompts Jesus to make the provocative statement that though John was the greatest under the old system, the least in the new system would be even greater.
This opens a window for us through which we can glimpse the nature of the relationship available to believers today. In terms of intimacy, in terms of direct contact with God, in terms of authority to proclaim His truth to the world, the least in the church is a giant step ahead of all those who went before. May we humbly grasp this truth and act on it.
