Amen, I say to you,
among those born of women
there has been none greater than John the Baptist;
Jesus explained that John the Baptist was the greatest of the prophetic voices given in the history of Israel. The others were, after all, only beginning that for which John the climax. The prophetic tradition was bookended at the beginning by Elijah himself and now at the conclusion by John the Baptist who was himself the climax and the fulfillment of the prophetic mission and energy first unleashed by Elijah. The greatness of John was undeniable. The word of the Lord came to him in the desert and he was faithful to that word. Yet he himself saw that his mission was to decrease so that Jesus could increase (see John 3:30). He himself recognized that what he had to offer was not itself the Kingdom but merely a voice that pointed toward the Kingdom.
yet the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
It was not the prophetic greatness of John the Baptist, the impressive crowds, the striking preaching, that were to be central elements of the Kingdom. The greatest in the Kingdom we are told, were the most like children and servants. They were not necessarily those who succeeded and attained fame as measured by the world. John himself seemed to recognize this in his willingness to decrease, and even to die for the sake of his testimony to the Kingdom. In his public role he was impressive, and yes, praiseworthy. But it was in his interiority that he came near to the Kingdom and to true greatness.
From the days of John the Baptist until now,
the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence,
and the violent are taking it by force.
It would seem hugely problematic to an earthly concept of the Kingdom that it be under this constant threat of violence. But if the Kingdom was at the very core a share in the death and resurrection of Jesus himself given as a free gift to believers then the paradigm of earthly success as a measurement would need to be upended entirely. It was those who were willing, like John, to be the least, to be ignored and spoken against, even to be killed, who would now be seen as great, precisely because they could not do this on their own. The true sacrifice God desired, obedience and a contrite spirit, was something which the Old Testament's powerful prophetic tradition never produced. It was something lacking until Jesus himself came to offer it, and then in turn to give it to us as a gift which we could employ in our own lives.
and the violent are taking it by force.
The world continues to press against the Kingdom and attempt to destroy it. In our nation the damage is often merely political or reputational, but it certainly does not exclude real violence and martyrdom throughout the world. We need our own sort of spiritual violence in order to preempt that of the world against us. We can choose to join ourselves more and more to the death and resurrection of Jesus himself. The degree that we choose to do this is that exact degree that the threats of the world lose their power over us.
Fear not, O worm Jacob,
O maggot Israel;
When we are humble enough to receive the word of the Lord to us it is then that we are the strongest and the most effective for his Kingdom.
I will help you, says the LORD;
your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
I will make of you a threshing sledge,
sharp, new, and double-edged,
To thresh the mountains and crush them,
to make the hills like chaff.
When the nations, symbolized by the mountains, see that we are not afraid of our own smallness but instead trust in the Lord no matter what circumstances we face, when they see that we have lost our fear of them, it will be a sign for them of the power of the Kingdom at work, a threshing sledge leveling the path of the Lord.
and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God (see Philippians 1:28).
We have no guarantees that being a threshing sledge will be an altogether pleasant experience for us. The experience of it will probably be part of the violence to ourselves that will help us to seize the Kingdom. It is will mean embodying and living out our willingness to be used for the sake of that Kingdom. But when challenges arise we can console ourselves with the hope of what God is preparing through the suffering we continue to experience.
I will open up rivers on the bare heights,
and fountains in the broad valleys;
I will turn the desert into a marshland,
and the dry ground into springs of water.
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