Matthew 18:1-4 “At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ And calling to Him a child, He put him in the midst of them and said, ‘Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’”
We are focusing once more on humility, the character quality that does not much mark the typical Christian, as it did not much mark the disciples who asked this question. We know that they were coming to Christ not because they really wanted to know what marked heavenly greatness, but because they were so full of themselves that they wanted Jesus to confirm them in their self-exaltation. Luke 9:46, 47 sheds light on their motivation; “An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest. But Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by His side . . .” “Jesus, I’d like to ask you this rhetorical question. ‘Who among us is the greatest?’ It’s me, right?”
Jesus sees through them though and in His mercy does not cuff them upside the head but instead teaches them the marks of true greatness by calling a child over to them and redefining the term. I wonder if Jesus called the child over by name as He put him in the midst of them. What do we know about the best qualities of a child? What do we love about them? What is it to “become like children”? A child does not presume to know it all. A child lives happily and freely under authority. A child does not lead the leader, but follows. A child is teachable and therefore malleable. Among other things a child is marked by innocence, dependence, unselfconscious laughter, trust, moral cleanness, humility. You can bet that as that little boy listened, he was not jumping around drawing attention to himself, but instead was hanging on every word that came out of Jesus’ mouth, gazing into His face. In his little heart, nothing else mattered. Who knows if Christ did not reveal more of Himself to that little boy than He did to the disciples in that brief interchange, such that he sat there transfixed in the presence of glory. My bet is that if his mom or dad had asked him, “Junior, what was the best part of your day,” he would have responded without hesitation, “When Jesus called me over, took me in His arms and spoke to his friends about how being great relates to being like a child.”
Jesus pointed out the boy’s humility and made much of it, telling us that humility is true greatness from God’s perspective, the only perspective that matters. How this flies in the face of every human being who has ever lived! How terribly unnatural to the self-loving, self-exalting, pride-parading core in each of us. It’s so unnatural to man that Peter enjoins us to be clothed in it. (1 Peter 5:5)
Having spent some time examining the link between true greatness and childlike qualities, chief among them being humility, let’s take a few moments now to consider the man who Jesus identifies as the greatest man who ever lived, John the Baptist. When I consider John, I see a man of courage and conviction, before I see a man of profound humility, but humble he was, and therefore highly exalted by Christ.
Matthew 11:11 “Truly I say to you, among those born of women, there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
Jesus praises John the Baptist as the greatest person who has ever lived. Now why would He say that? Isn’t that going just a little too far? What do we know about John? From Luke 3:16 we know that John, when asked whether he was the Christ, replied, “He who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.” Jesus’ feet would have been really dirty in light of all of His travels down dust-caked roads, and yet John maintains that he was unworthy to even stoop down to untie Christ’s sandals, let alone touch His feet. That’s a profound expression of humility. He also said of Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:30 He took that seriously, and it cost him his life, but John knew and embraced his station in life so fully that he was free to live and talk as he did. John’s greatness was due to his humility, and according to Jesus, it was so noteworthy that “there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist.”
I think it’s important to interject here, in light of how poorly understood and downgraded humility is these days, that John was a man, a real man, a man unafraid of tyrannical authority and not given to political correctness. He was no soft pansy. For example, Luke 3:18 records that he reproved Herod for sleeping with Herodias, his brother Phillip’s wife. You don’t see John sliding a note under the castle wall at night that read, “Dear King Herod, it’s probably not a good idea to be sleeping with your brother Phillip’s wife. I don’t think God is pleased with you. Signed, Anonymous.” No, no. John was so in Herod’s face about this sin that Herod had him imprisoned and would have gladly and quickly beheaded him had he not been so afraid of an uprising in response. I make this point so that we do not fall into the error of equating humility with spinelessness or a lack of conviction or courage. Remember, it is John’s humility that Jesus lauds as true greatness.
One final observation; note the second half of Matthew 11:11 reads, “Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” This greatest of all human beings, this humble John the Baptist does not even make Junior Varsity when compared to “the least in the kingdom of heaven.” Why? Because in heaven there is absolute holiness, zero sin, and all who live there are perfect, fully clothed through and through in the righteousness of their Redeemer, Jesus Christ, against which all earthly greatness shrinks to the microscopic.
That’s something to look forward to.