Summary
Status: Greater Than
In the season of Advent, the Church wears blue—the color of hope and confident expectation—and refuses to rush into Christmas. Advent is a time of waiting, preparation, and repentance, and the appearance of John the Baptist in the Sunday readings is itself a sign that we are squarely in this rich season. Life itself, in many ways, is Advent: the people of God live between the first coming of the Lord and His second coming, and so much of faithful life is waiting.
When Matthew 11:2-11 opens, John is in prison, having boldly exposed the sin of Herod Antipas. From his cell he sends disciples with a question: "Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?" Jesus answers not with reassurance about timetables but with the signs of the Messiah Himself—the blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news preached to them (Isaiah 35 made flesh).
Then Jesus turns to the crowds and pours out an astonishing affirmation of John, built on three marks. First, strength of conviction: John was no reed shaken by the wind. He did not lick a finger and hold it up to test which way popular opinion blew. Second, sacrifice: he wore camel's hair and ate locusts and wild honey, not the soft robes of palaces—one of only three in Scripture, with Samson and Samuel, recorded as taking a vow of self-denial. Third, he surpassed: more than a prophet, John was the very fulfillment of prophecy, the messenger of Malachi 3:1 sent to prepare the way of the Lord. Of John, Jesus declares, "Among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist."
And then comes the surprise. The same "greater than" returns, but now pointed in the opposite direction: "Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." Greater than John. Greater than the strongest convictions, the most rigorous self-denial, the highest prophetic office a son of woman has ever held. This is the heart of the teaching in Status: "Greater Than" 12-3-23: status in the kingdom of God is not measured by what we accomplish, endure, or surpass.
We fall short where John did not. We are tempted to be the spineless reed, to be self-indulgent rather than self-sacrificing, to live as though the universe revolves around us. Yet the very Christ whom John proclaimed went to the cross and bore that sin, paid the debt in His blood, and in the waters of Holy Baptism washes us with the word of the cross and the empty tomb, making us members of His kingdom.
This is why the least in the kingdom is greater than John: not because of what they have done, but because of what Christ has done; not because of who they are, but because of who they are in Christ. You are not the sum of your achievements, accolades, power, position, or self-made success. There is no greater title, no greater position, no greater reality than to be called a child of God and a member of His kingdom.
Video citations
- Status: "Greater Than" 12-3-23 — Do you open your Bible's please with me to the 11th chapter of the Gospel of Saint Matthew. For our study today, if you're using a Pue edition, you'll find that in the New Testament page 10, Matthew…