As I read through Matthew 12, I am amazed at the authority with which Jesus speaks. His authority, which is noted by the people at the end of Jesus' Great Sermon (Matt. 5-7), is the reason they follow him. It's part of what gives Jesus his wow-factor. But it isn't as though he just walks up to people, whoever they are, and just says, "Hey! I'm great." Not at all. On the contrary, there is almost a hiddenness to his glory. He heals people of all their diseases, and then orders them "not to make him known." (12:16) We are told this is to fulfill Isaiah's prophecy of God's true servant, who "will not wrangle or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets" (12:19; Isaiah 42:1-4)
Matthew 12 gives us a picture of the greatness of Jesus as he explained it to people on a daily basis.
In conversation with Pharisees, he tells them a story about temple priests who break the sabbath and punctuates his point - "I tell you, something greater than the temple is here." As they belly-ache about how he doesn't toe the line on their particular sabbath observances, he tells them a story about David taking bread, and closes with "the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath." Later, they ask Jesus for a sign of who he is. He warns them that the Ninevites received Jonah, and now the Pharisees are in trouble because "see, something greater than Jonah is here." Likewise, he warns them that the queen of the South, or Sheba (Yemen in today's map) visited Solomon and was amazed at his wisdom. She will stand in judgment over this generation, Jesus says, because "see, something greater than Solomon is here!" (12:42)
The intensity of the back-and-forth exchanges between Jesus and these people captures our attention. It is easy to overlook what Jesus is saying about himself. Greater than Jonah, Solomon, the temple, the Sabbath? How much greater? How "great" are you? No wonder these strict monotheists wanted to "destroy him" (12:14)
I think of something Scottish pastor and theologian P.T. Forsyth wrote in 1909. "All the great Christian teachers impress us with the fact that their teaching is far ahead of their experience, and that they built better than they knew. Even Paul preached a Gospel greater than anything he attained in his own soul...whereas our impression of Christ is just the converse...He received from none the Gospel he spoke. He found it in himself. Indeed it was himself. He only preached the true relation between God and man because he incarnated it, and because he established it."
Christ is something greater. To Jonah, Solomon, the temple, P.T. Forsyth would add the Apostle Paul and every Christian teacher. What can we add to this list today? Because here is what this means today:
First, everything good in this world, I mean that is truly good, is shaped by the Word of God. Jesus himself is the Word of God. Even you and me, to the extent that we are "good trees" that bear "good fruit" (12:33) it is because Jesus created us anew in his death and resurrection. So let's give thanks and speak to him face to face - our God in the flesh, greater than all he has created.
Secondly, know that he is God. It is common to read something like this: "Jesus is humble, so he would never say that we was greater than the gods of other religions." This would be a far different Jesus than we are seeing in Matthew 12 or any other part of the Bible. Yes, Jesus was humble - the humble servant who "will not wrangle or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets." He was humble in that he was really human, just like each of us. Not God merely masquerading as a human. But also "something greater than..." He is also God, the only God. The same Jesus who claims to be "something greater" in Matthew 12 claims to have "power over everything in heaven and on earth by Matthew 28. With his Father and his Spirit who lives within us, Jesus is God - not like us at all - who came down and became like us in every way so he could bring us to himself. We are greater, because something greater than us is here. Very good news, because all that he is, anything that he claims to be - this is the gift he gives to us. For he gives us himself.
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