Matthew 11:11 Truly I say to you, Among them that are born of women there has not risen a greater than John the Baptist… Is it contrary to any true theory of John's prophetical mission that he should be for once seized with a spasm of doubt? Great men are not at their greatest at all times. The heavenly treasure is in earthen vessels. There are two sufficient reasons for his doubt: — 1. Things were turning out somewhat differently from his own programme. He was falling into the mistake we often make of fancying ourselves architects in God's world, whereas we are only day labourers. 2. John's message came from the inside of a prison. A man of his temperament, flung back from great activities to mope by himself, was almost sure to get a little strained in his views of things. For such men the difficulty is not to do hard things, but to be kept back from doing them. Note, now, the way in which Christ deals with this message.How is the doubter received? No word of anger or remonstrance. 1. He gives the messengers clear proof of His Messiahship, and then, when their back is turned, He speaks to the multitude of John in terms of commendation. 2. Observe what Christ says concerning John — "What; went ye out for to see." Men go out to see what there is to see: what we bring to a thing conditions what we shall bring away from it. "Notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." We are all of us higher up than John. We are so by virtue of belonging to a dispensation beyond his. The baptism of Pentecost lifted the world to a higher stage, and we are on that higher stage. It is a glorious thought that, under God, the human race is continually advancing. 3. Take two particulars as regards our dispensation: — 1. We have the advantage of John in the testimony we bear, from the facts we deal with, as compared with those of which he spake. He sketched the Christ in outline; we have the picture filled up. 2. The advantage of the worker in the Christian Church over the Baptist is seen in the kind of effort to which he puts his hand. John's work was to bring men to repentance; this its limit. But in the Christian Church this work is to be carried on through all the process of sanctification, till it lifts the soul to the topmost heights of holiness. The element of the remarkable and extraordinary is not always the measure of real value. John's career was extraordinary. We do a work thousands have done before. Yearn not to be eccentric, but deep and. real. (J. Brierley, B. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. |
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