The Greatest and the Least, Sermon for the 3rd Sunday of Advent

Third Sunday in Advent
December 12^th, Year of Our + Lord 2021
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
The Greatest and the Least

   “I am the greatest.  Float like a butterfly, sting like the be, I’m the best in the world, I’m Muhammad Ali.”  I am just old enough to have been enthralled by Muhammed Ali.  Too young to understand his politics or religion.  For me, Ali was just a marvelous fighter, and an amazing showman.  According to many, he was the greatest heavyweight boxing champion in history.  Ali certainly thought so.  From a very young age, Ali, formerly named Cassius Clay, or the Louisville Lip as he was not so lovingly nicknamed, bragged that no one, not in his day or any earlier day, no one was as good as him.  “I am the greatest!”  And perhaps Muhammed Ali was right.  He was frankly past his prime when I was old enough to follow boxing.  And still he was amazing to watch, with hand speed and footwork never before seen in a heavyweight fighter.

   It may be true that Ali was the greatest boxer who ever lived, and perhaps the greatest showman and braggart and self-promoter.  Among his most famous lines about himself were: “I’m young, I’m handsome, I’m fast.  I can’t possibly be beat,” and “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, his hands can’t hit what his eyes can’t see,” and “It’s hard to be humble when you’re as great as I am.” 

   Some younger people today may wonder who I’m talking about.  But Muhammed Ali was, in the 1970s and 1980s, probably the best-known person in the world.  Which would in some sense make him “The Greatest,” no?  I used to follow boxing closely, and even sparred a bit in my garage and backyard.  Not so much anymore.  It’s not that I decided that boxing is evil, but there is certainly a bitter side to boxing.  It’s danger and pain are part of its allure to a young boy, which a bit more age and life experience made less appealing.  Boxing is, after all, codified and controlled combat. 

   Now, I’m not up here to preach pacifism.  I’m a former Marine, and proud of it.  Even more, the Old Testament is full of fighters and warriors.  Moses.  Gideon.  Samson.  King David.  Elijah.  Indeed the angels we normally depict as lovely and gentle female figures in our Christmas decorations are a misrepresentation.  Angels are neither male nor female.  But if you read the Bible closely you will discover they most commonly appear as mighty warriors.  Often their task is to fight God’s battles for Israel.  That is, when the LORD Himself is not claiming the mantle as Protector of Israel, personally fighting to protect His Bride. 

   It is sadly necessary in this sinful world to have fighters: armies, police, and protective big brothers, or big sisters, as the case may be.  Martial values obviously pose a risk, easily being perverted into bullying, and violence for violence’ sake.  But it’s dangerous to pretend that there is no value in strength and a willingness to fight for truth, justice and to protect others.  If all the good and strong decide fighting just isn’t acceptable in any circumstance, then the bad and violent will take over.  Many would argue that boxing and other combat sports improve society by encouraging valor and strength, and by channeling our innate tendency to violence in a controlled way. 

   But boxing and other combat sports still take a toll.  The Parkinson’s disease that limited and then shortened Muhammed Ali’s life may or may not have been connected to the thousands of blows he took to the head.  But you don’t have to investigate long to understand the injury and debilitation that violent sports inflict on young men, and increasingly, on young women.  Whether it is defensible as a sport or not, boxing takes a toll. 

    But then, so does every worldly endeavor.  We are greatly blessed every day by the wonders of human innovation and technology.  But every great construction project, like the Hoover Dam or the Golden Gate bridge, each one inflicts injury and many cost lives, sometimes hundreds or thousands.  All work, however valuable, has the potential to injure.  Truck drivers get bad backs, and occasionally cause terrible accidents.  Farmers breathe dust and chemicals.  Carpet layers ruin their knees.  Woodworkers lose fingers.  Doctors and nurses are exposed to dangerous diseases, and in rare instances kill a patient accidentally.  Computer programmers get carpal tunnel, damage their eyesight, and are participants in the dulling of humanity’s brain activity.  Living and working in this fallen world, for all its beauty and blessing, is in the end a battle against decay, entropy, and ultimately death. 

   So when Muhammed Ali turned prizefighting into a mesmerizing dance and covered the violence of his sport with the armor of humor, wit, braggadocio and intelligence, he seemed to be contradicting the harshness of reality.  It’s not surprising many nodded along in agreement when he declared, “I am the greatest!  The greatest of all time.”       

   Jesus disagrees.  Today we hear our Lord declare there is no one born of woman greater than John the Baptist.  Jesus says His strange, wild, locust-eating cousin is the greatest man every born.  Or at least he is in a tie for greatest.  No one greater.  Maybe Moses, Elijah or Abraham was equally great, but no one was greater.  This is certainly an odd thing to say. 

   I mean, John the Baptist never built anything.  He never amassed a fortune.  He did attract some crowds, but mostly only crowds of Jews, a minor people of no consequence in the world.  And even amongst his own people, John the Baptist received a mixed reception.  The low and looked-down-upon, the sinful women, (that’s Bible speak for prostitutes), and tax collectors, (traitors to their people who worked for the hated Roman overlords), and other poor and marginal folks, these Jews liked John.  But the rich and powerful, the religious and educated, the Jewish elite did little more than tolerate him, and worry about his influence over the people. 

   In fact, John’s preaching landed him in prison, when he called out King Herod for his adultery and other sins.  So, John the Baptizer, the greatest born of women, sits rotting in Herod’s jail, his mouth getting him in trouble.  Not for promoting himself, like Ali, but rather for promoting the Truth of God’s Law, no matter how unpopular. 

   Through this lens Jesus helps us begin to learn about true greatness.  This world is a rough place, and we humans are a sad and sinful bunch.  In the context of the pain and grind of earning a living, and the injury and insult we suffer from and inflict upon others, physical strength and a willingness to stand up to evil and violence are good things.  But the knowledge of the Truth, and the moral courage to speak it plainly, come what may, this is true earthly greatness.  And no one ever did it better than John the Baptizer.  If anyone was ever going to earn his way into God’s kingdom, it was John the Baptist, whose whole life was dedicated to hearing and declaring what the LORD spoke to him, without regard for the consequences.  John was the greatest at hearing, following and declaring the Truth about life in this world, about the Law of God.  No one had ever done it better. 

   No one born of woman was ever better than John.  And yet, says Jesus, the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.  This is strange.  The kingdom of heaven, based on what Jesus says, is very different from this world.  Different standards of greatness apply.  Being a citizen of God’s kingdom requires a different kind of birth, and calls for a different kind of greatness. 

   Jesus came down from heaven to save this world, which is a little hard to understand, since Jesus turned the world upside down.  Everything we worldly creatures think we know about how things are, or should be, Jesus reverses.

For example, Jesus says:   

The first shall be last, and the last shall be first, and

Unless you repent and become like a little child, you shall by no means enter the kingdom of God, and while   

God hates sin, and yet Jesus ministers to the worst sinners. 

   For all the miraculous things Jesus did, which seem great to us, His teaching is hard to grasp, and hard to accept.      

    So no wonder that John, sitting in prison, was confused, or doubting, or something.  When John heard about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and asks Jesus, "Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?"  God spoke directly to John, and told him to prepare the way for his cousin Jesus, because Mary’s Child was the anointed one, the promised Messiah, the Christ come from God to save Israel.  Now, John isn’t so sure.  Why does John suddenly doubt?  There are multiple possible reasons. 

    Jesus had promised to deliver the prisoners from captivity.  And yet here I am, John the Baptist, Jesus’ own cousin and forerunner, sitting in prison.  Maybe John was asking, “Where’s my deliverance?”  That’s possible.  After all, John was, for all his greatness, just a man. 

    Or maybe John himself didn’t doubt at all, but used his inquiry as a teaching tool, intended to transition his disciples from following him, stuck in prison, to following the real deal, Jesus.  Maybe. 

    But given the nature of John’s question and the way Jesus responds, the unexpected upside-down-ness of Jesus’ ministry seems likely to be the cause of John’s confusion.  Remember, John had predicted that Jesus would come with His winnowing fork in his hand, ready to separate the wheat from the chaff, and to burn the chaff in unquenchable fire.  If you’re not a grain farmer, this metaphor may be as obscure to you as references to Muhammed Ali.  The point is that John expected Jesus to be a fierce preacher of God’s Law, come to reward and bless the righteous, law-abiding people, and to punish by banishment to hell all those who failed to keep it.  So when Jesus instead hangs out with sinners, healing and blessing them, and speaking of forgiveness, well, this seems upside down and backwards. 

    Whatever the basis of John’s questioning, Jesus understands that his cousin needs to be reassured that He is indeed the Messiah.  And so, Jesus doubles down on Good News:  "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me."

   That last bit brings up another question, doesn’t it? What could be offensive about Jesus, the heavenly miracle worker? 

   Well, Jesus came to do something new.  He had to.  The fundamental confusion, if not of John the Baptist, certainly of all the rest of us, is the idea that we by following God’s Law could earn God’s favor, and thus gain entry into His Kingdom.  This was finally and completely rejected by Jesus.  God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit had set up this salvation-by-keeping-the-Law bargain through Moses, the Old Covenant.  And it is a fair deal.  But because of how we are, we sinners never had the capability to keep our part of the bargain.  We expect that righteous people will be favored by God, and this is true.   But of ourselves, of our morality and strength and goodness, no one is righteous.   No one truly follows God.  No, not one.  If this offends you, then you are listening well.  But blessed are you to continue listening and so be brought from being offended to being reborn. 

     You see, Jesus does not offend for the sake of offending.  To bring sinners into the kingdom of heaven, Jesus had to do things a new way.  Moral reformation would not be enough.  To save us sinners, Jesus would have to create a New Covenant.  He would have to give us new birth, a completely new start with a new source of righteousness: Himself, His very own life and being.   

    And so Jesus, who is by any measure truly the Greatest, opened the Kingdom of Heaven to us, by becoming the Least.  God’s Son became the Least, by being born in a stable, with a feed trough for a crib.  The Author of God’s Law became the Least, by submitting to His own Law, as if He were a sinner, like us.  The King of Heaven became the Least, by coming to serve, not to be served.  The Father’s most precious treasure, beloved from eternity, became the Least, totally expendable, worthy of scorn and attack by wicked men.  The Least, abandoned by all, even for one terrible moment by His own Father, punished not for His own sins, but for yours and for mine.   

    Jesus became the Least, in order to be the Greatest, who shares His greatness with you.  This is why a Crucifix, a representation of Jesus, dying on the Cross, is in Truth a symbol of Good News, a proclamation of God’s love, for you.  For the very Least, the dead Jesus on the Cross, is the Greatest, the source of new birth and eternal life.  His righteousness.  His holiness.  His goodness.  His morality.  Jesus died, to give all these to you, for free. 

   And thus we learn to treasure Baptism.  Our own sinful nature and the world all around us teach us to treasure wealth and power and braggadocio and cleverness.  We may not become the greatest in the world at anything, but we should all aspire to it, and idolize those who achieve greatness.  Or so says the world. 

   But Jesus disagrees.  Our Lord teaches us, and show us, that the Least is the Greatest, all the way to the Cross, and bursting forth from the Tomb.  And this Jesus, your Jesus, the Greatest of all time and eternity, has shared His greatness with you, by giving you new birth, by water and the Word.  Birth into His heavenly kingdom, where the Good News of Jesus upside-down and backward plan is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe.  The Kingdom of Heaven is not a place, not some physical location, but rather it is a state of being, a relationship.  It is to live, wherever you are and whatever your circumstances, under the power and rule of the God who loves and gives, and sacrifices Himself.  The True God desires to save, and so He took your sins into Himself, in order to wash them away forever.   

    The driving forces of this world are strength, will, intelligence, drive, and a commitment to the rules, to the laws of men and the laws of God.  And insofar as we follow just rules and laws, this earthly life will be better.  But the rules can only get you so far, and not far enough, not all the way into God’s kingdom.  Because you and I do not truly keep them, not on our own. 

    The driving force of the Kingdom of Heaven is God, who is love.  God, who is just, and the justifier of the one who believes in Jesus.  This Gospel message is the Word talked about by Isaiah, the Word which goes forth from God’s mouth, empowered by the Holy Spirit, never failing, always accomplishing God’s will. 

    It certainly takes a lot of faith to trust this promise.  Because the blessed results and greatness of God’s kingdom aren’t obvious to our eyes.  And so, this same Word that speaks of the Kingdom of Heaven also creates in your heart the faith you need to receive it.  And this is the best news of all, straight from the lips of the Greatest, your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who gives you His Spirit and welcomes you into the loving care of His Father, forever and ever, Amen.