Before these passages take place, disciples of John the Baptist have been sent by John, who is in prison, to inquire of Jesus’ ministry. They to ask if Jesus is the one who is to come or should they wait for another. This perceived doubt is on the part of the Baptist’s disciples, not John’s. We know this since it was John himself who will point Jesus out as the Lamb of God and who must increase whilst he decreases before his imprisonment.
11 Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
Jesus begins with “truly” but he actually says “amen”, which is a residual trace of the Aramaic that Jesus was speaking. By prefacing His statements with “Amen,” Jesus emphasizes His own authority to declare absolute truth.
Then he says that among those “born of women” no one has risen greater than John the Baptist. This phrase represents life in the natural order, under the conditions of sin and death inherited from Adam and Eve. Eve receives her name because she is the “mother of all the living”.
The word (meizon) means “greater” or “superior” and can indicate preeminence in various ways, such as dignity, importance, authority, or moral excellence. The context of the passage suggests that John’s greatness is not material or worldly but spiritual and tied to his role in God’s plan as the forerunner of Christ. The verb egeiro, (“has risen”) often connotes being raised up by God, emphasizing divine commissioning that was extended to the Prophets before him rather than individual human sanctity.
All the prophets up to this point in salvation history have played their part in a timeline, the greatest of these will be John since he is the one that proceeds the Messiah, the greatness is that of proximity to the Christ who every other prophet and patriarch as been oriented toward.
Jesus juxtaposes all of these prophets including John, being the greatest, with the least in the New Covenant. The least in the New Covenant, the Kingdom of Heaven, will be greater than John was. This speaks to what Paul was referring to in Galatians 4:7 “So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir.” The Old Covenant relationship was that was of servitude, in the New Covenant our very nature is transformed by Christ through Baptism, we are no longer born of women but born of the Spirit. We are now Son’s of God, occupying the trifold office of Prophet, Priest and King in Jesus Christ, so even the least, is higher in the state of order than John. This is not to say John and the prophets of old are excluded from Heaven just in the order of time that it arrives.
12 From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and men of violence take it by force.
This verse can be really confusing and there are a lot of varied interpretations of it. In the time period between Johns ministry “until now” which is typically perceived as a two year period as we are in approximately the second year of Jesus’ ministry, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence and men of violence take it by force.
“Suffered violence” ( biazetai in Greek). This verb can be understood as either passive (“is being subjected to violence”) or middle voice (“is forcefully advancing”). If it is passive then the kingdom is under assault by external forces but if the middle voicing is used then the kingdom is advancing with forceful effort. The same with the phrase “Men of violence” we have biastai which similarly could mean those who attack the kingdom, like the Pharisees for example or it could mean those who zealously fight for it like the Apostles. The nature of the word choices make the interpretation very difficult, both views are acceptable and are true.
Personally I am inclined toward the forceful advancement of the Kingdom by the Apostles, this comes from the context of the previous Chapter of Matthew where the disciples are granted authority to exorcise demons by Jesus. They begin their part in the divine conquest of the Kingdom of Heaven just before this episode with John’s disciples approaching Jesus begins.
13 For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John;
Now Jesus positions both the Prophets and the Law as the prerequisite to John himself, although many prophets lived to see the immediate and lesser fulfilments of their prophecies, like Jeremiah, the true fullness of Salvation history pointed toward Christ which they did not see and neither did Moses who was the writer of the Law but it still points toward Jesus. John on the other gets to see the person that is the fulfilment so the prophets and the law only prophesied until John, they only got to look forward to what would happen whereas John sees it.
14 and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come.
Jesus here posits John the Baptist as “Elijah who is to come”. Elijah was expected to return to prepare Israel for the coming of the Messiah and the final judgment. His role was one of reconciliation and restoration.
Malachi 4:5-6 says “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
The Jews knew that the forerunner would be Elijah and Jesus says “if you are willing to accept it” referring to the spiritual blindness of his contemporaries, that John is the fulfilment of this expectation. Earlier in the Gospel accounts, John is described as being dressed like Elijah and coming in his spirit.
15 He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
In verse 15 Jesus uses a phrase he has used elsewhere. All people have ears to hear, at least most people do, so Jesus is referring to a type of hearing that requires a disposition change. Considering the context of other moments this is used, like the parable of the sower and in John’s Revelation, it is obviously a type of spiritual hearing, particularly that of humility.
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