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Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, among those born of women, there has arisen none, no one greater than John the Baptist, yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
Please be seated. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
So imagine that you’re a Galilean, and you’re living in the time of Christ’s first advent. You’ve spent a good part of your life sitting in the synagogue, hearing the Scriptures read, particularly about the Messiah to come, and how He will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God, as we heard in the text from Isaiah chapter 35.
In your mind, you might be picturing this Messiah as strong and mighty. He might have eyes of flame. He’s got some type of weapon of judgment he’s wielding, and he’s going to exact that judgment on those who do not keep the law, particularly those who are not the children of Abraham. You’ve probably also heard about this firebrand prophet who’s preaching repentance, and he’s speaking of the axe laid to the root of the trees, and that those trees would be cut down and thrown into the fire. You’ve heard of the one coming with his winnowing fork in his hand to burn the chaff in unquenchable fire, this one who would, at long last, restore the people from their enemies, I’m sorry, who would bring the people away from their enemies and restore the glory of Zion.
And so now here you are, sitting among this crowd, you’re listening to this man they referred to as Jesus of Nazareth, and you’re hearing him say things like love your enemies, give to the needy, judge not, don’t be anxious, and various other things that make you question the rumors that he might be the one. How in the world can this be the Messiah? He doesn’t sound like a Savior, and he sure doesn’t look like one, and he isn’t at all in your mind what you had in mind when you heard it said that he would be a king, that he would sit on the throne of David.
So maybe these prophets have been wrong about him. And while you’re sitting there contemplating these thoughts in your mind, some men arrive who say they’re from John the Baptist, and you think, oh yeah, that’s that prophet. And I’ve heard what happened to him. You seem to recall that King Herod had put him in prison for some reason some time ago, and you wonder why. Maybe this John the Baptist is as crazy as they say. People say that he’s a prophet, but yet he lives out in the desert and looks like a crazy man. So maybe Herod has done everyone a favor by locking this loon away.
And now these men who come from John confirm your suspicions with the question they ask, “Are you the one to come or shall we look for another?” And there it is. You wish you were surprised at that question, but you’re not, because you’re puzzled too. I mean, even John the Baptist, the self-proclaimed forerunner of the Messiah, he’s uncertain about who Jesus is. And although he is in prison, he has heard about what’s been going on, and to him nothing—nothing has been going on, at least none of the things which he had warned about. There’s no wrath. There’s no cutting down. There’s no throwing into the fire. There’s no burning. So John had to be thinking, here I am sitting in jail, and Jesus is out there running around, not doing any of the things that I predicted he would do. He’s not who I proclaimed him to be.
Now, of course, Jesus knows what John the Baptist is thinking, and he responds to the question, “Are we to look for another?” Not with an answer directly to the men, but to John himself. And it’s really not an answer; it’s more of a redirection. But Jesus appeals to the authority of Scripture, and he restates the verses of Isaiah 35 that perhaps John forgot about. “The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.”
There is, in fact, a lot happening, just as Isaiah foretold. People are being healed, restored, and renewed, both physically and spiritually, and Christ is saying to John, “You have accomplished all you came to do, and now I am accomplishing my purpose as well, despite what you or anyone else might have expected.”
What we might see is kind of a general rebuke or reproof of John. Jesus gives the assurance of peace to those who do not take offense at who he is, who he really is. He’s not at all who you thought he would be. He’s not a temporal king, but he’s a patient, humble, and gentle servant. And Jesus knows your thoughts as well, which many in the crowd probably share, and He senses that you still have this lingering doubt that this conversation has not helped shake.
You think, if John was confused about Jesus, what does this say about John? Maybe he was altogether wrong about the coming of the kingdom. Maybe he wasn’t and isn’t a prophet after all, so maybe I shouldn’t even listen to Jesus. Well, Jesus will now turn His attention back to those of you listening. And Jesus likes to ask rhetorical questions, and so today is no different.
But in doing this, God is defending—Jesus is defending John, and He’s reassuring that John is indeed a prophet, that he has been chosen by God. He does this by showing what John is not.
So, he asked, “What did you go out in the wilderness to see, a reed shaken by the wind?” Jesus is saying, John isn’t a yes-man, if that’s what you want. He didn’t preach to itching ears. In fact, that’s why he’s in prison. Your so-called religious authorities looked the other way, turned their head to Herod’s sin, and so did you. And so, now look where John’s calls for repentance have landed him.
And Jesus continues with his questioning, “What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing?” Jesus says those men are found in the houses of kings, earthly kings like Herod. And true enough, John is in Herod’s house, but he didn’t get there by serving Herod; he got there by serving Jesus.
And the last time, “What then did you go out to see, a prophet?” John is not just another prophet; he is the one who himself was prophesied about. He is the one who closes the book on the Old Testament. And Jesus really hammers this home when he quotes the prophet Malachi regarding the messenger who will prepare the way. John is the herald of God. He is sent to make men’s hearts ready to receive the Messiah.
John is not mistaken about Jesus, because all that John had already preached about is, in fact, coming to pass, despite what it looks like. So to put to rest any lingering doubt about John, Jesus heaps praise on him in no uncertain terms. There is no one greater among those born of women. John is the greatest prophet called to do the final and most important work of a man for God’s kingdom, and that is to pave the way for the Messiah in preaching repentance, by baptizing Christ himself, and by eventually suffering death rather than deny the truth of God’s Word.
So if nothing Jesus has said to you at this point makes a difference, then prepare to be blown away by his next words: “The one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” Whoa, you aren’t really sure what you just heard. Is he talking about me? Really? Didn’t Jesus just proclaim that, essentially, John the Baptist is the greatest man who ever lived? What does he mean by saying this?
Jesus is telling you that John is the greatest prophet and worthy of much praise here on earth, but the message that he preached to you has revealed the glory of the kingdom of God, and it is for you and your children. You are greater than he because you are seeing and hearing the truth right in front of you. Jesus says in Matthew 13, 16 and 17, “But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear. For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people long to see what you see and did not see it, and to hear what you hear and did not hear it.”
John won’t live to see these things, but you will. And there we see that this revelation comes with a cost, as John has already discovered. Those who don’t want to hear will be hostile to the Word of God and to the ones who follow Jesus. They are those who want to continue living in the Old Testament world with its preaching of the law, and they are blind to see what has already come to pass.
The law has been fulfilled. The Elijah that was foretold in Malachi actually is John, and he has come to turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers, if you will only believe this.
So, I guess that we might take some level of comfort in knowing that we are not alone in our doubting. We’re in pretty good company: Abraham, Moses, Gideon, Jeremiah, Paul, and others. They also had doubts about God’s Word and about the ability to accomplish the things that He had put before them and that He asked of them. And they each had their own reasons for being skeptical. Their faith was mixed with fear. Their trust was clouded with apprehension.
So being confused and perplexed isn’t of itself a bad thing, and doubt is, unfortunately, too often part of the Christian life. But each of these generations had waited and wondered, would this be the generation to which the Messiah would come? John the Baptist wasn’t any different, and a lot of the people in the crowd were wondering as well.
Now we really don’t have to put ourselves in the place of these people to understand this because it’s not like there’s much difference 2,000 years later. We can be quite a bit like those Galileans; in fact, we’re not so different. Some of them struggled to believe that they were living in this time of the first advent of Christ, that He was truly present in front of them. And now we find ourselves wondering if He’s really coming back for His final advent. What’s taking so long, Jesus? What’s the hold up? We’ve waited long enough.
Some of the Galileans wanted Jesus to be the strong arm of judgment to bring vengeance and the recompense of God. And now we look around us and we see everything that’s going on, and we want some kind of swift punishment. We want something to happen to those who actively wage war on the church and on us, God’s people. But in that, we become like the disciples who were with Jesus in the Samaritan village who rejected him, and they asked, “Should we rain down fire on them?” And in doing so, they were demanding justice in the place of grace and mercy.
We want Jesus to sweep the house clean, to put it in order. We want him to be strong instead of weak. We want him to be fierce instead of gentle. We want Jesus to be the vengeful one. But we do well to listen to St. James’s words to us today: “Be patient until the coming of the Lord.” We should remember that what we think is an eternity is a blinking of God’s eye. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. We should repent and consider our own sins and not worry and obsess so much about the sins of others.
And last, take the prophets as an example of suffering and patience. We should remember those who answered God’s call but did not live, and they died in faith not having received the promise that they had seen.
So now imagine, last, that you were John the Baptist and you’re waiting on your disciples to come back to you with some kind of message from Jesus. Perhaps you’re cautiously optimistic about what you’re going to hear, and sure enough, yes, they come back and they say to you, “Yes, he is the Christ. He is the one for which you have prepared the way.”
Remember you were the one, John, who leapt in your mama’s womb, already confident, already faithful, already in the presence of the Messiah. And here you are now prepared to go to your death, never being more sure of this. So we have to be certain of the revelation of Christ and consider ourselves blessed for the gifts that we’ve been given that John the Baptist did not live to see.
We have the assurance of God’s Word given to the apostles, in which we have the promise of salvation worked through Christ. We have the assurance of a baptism of water and the Holy Spirit, in which we have new life. We have the assurance of his supper, in which we are nourished and receive the forgiveness of sins and refreshment.
And last, we have the assurance that Jesus, in his great love, has removed all doubt and he has established a place for us with him forever. And so if Jesus should not choose to return during our lifetime, may we, like John, die in peace with the comfort of salvation won for us and with the blessed hope of the resurrection. Amen.
Now the peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
