What makes you great?

Matthew 11:11-15

Jesus said, “Let me tell you what’s going on here: No one in history surpasses John the Baptizer; but the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John. For a long time now people have tried to force themselves into God’s kingdom. But if you read the books of the Prophets and God’s Law closely, you will see them culminate in John, teaming up with him in preparing the way for the Messiah of the kingdom. Looked at in this way, John is the ‘Elijah’ you’ve all been expecting to arrive and introduce the Messiah. “Are you listening to me? Really listening?

Food for thought!

The words of Jesus in today's gospel reading are difficult to understand. What does he means by saying: "No one in history surpasses John the Baptizer; but the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John"? Well, we must begin by saying that it is not a matter of what John the Baptist lacked or that made the other disciples great. In fact the point of the passage is exactly the opposite of that: the success or failure, greatness or smallness of our lives from an earthly view has exactly no bearing on our status in the Kingdom. A successful business person is not necessarily a successful Christian.

Because we have been successful in this world, does not automatically translate into success in heaven. The point about John the Baptist was simply that although he played a very special role in history, this did not in itself make him special in the Kingdom; what made him special is Jesus.

A similar thing happened with Mary. The gospel of Luke 11:27-28 says: "As Jesus was speaking, a woman in the crowd called out, 'God bless your mother—the womb from which you came, and the breasts that nursed you!' Jesus replied, 'But even more blessed are all who hear the word of God and put it into practice.'"

The woman that mothered Jesus is indeed blessed. Mary is a blessed woman. However, and this is critically important, Mary is blessed not for having biologically mothered Jesus, she is blessed in the first place, for having head God’s Word and having said, "let it be done to me according to his word." If Mary had heard but ignored the word of God as spoken by the angel, she would never ever been blessed. It means, as Jesus put it, more blessed are all who hear the word of God and put it into practice, as Mary did. So, Jesus is not denying Mary her honour; he is teaching us the correct reason why Mary is and should be honoured.

The same with John the Baptist. Jesus is not denying him his honour. He is rather saying that John is not great through the eyes of history even though historically he was the greatest of all born of a woman for being the immediate herald of the greatest event in all of history. John is great because he believed in and preached Jesus.

Any earthly rankings in honor are utterly irrelevant when it comes to heavenly honor in the kingdom. It means that more blessed are all who hear the word of God and put it into practice. It means that those who are God-begotten are greater than the blood-begotten, are greater than the flesh-begotten (John 1: 13).