Bad Theology

Text for today: Matthew 11 xi

Jesus proclaims that no greater human being than John the Baptist has ever been born, but that the person who is least in the kingdom of Heaven is greater than John.

There is one who is least in the kingdom of heaven; hence, the kingdom of heaven is a hierarchy and, even under God, its citizens are not equal. This assertion is a corollary of Jesus' declaration that the last shall be first and the first last (Matthew 20 xvi). For all His noted hostility to conventional human affections when they rival the all-important worship of the Father, Jesus had no interest in changing the basic structure of human power relationships. He did not promise to abolish thrones; He promised only that they should be occupied by Himself and His disciples. To the élite He recommended lofty indifference to the suffering of others, while His good news to the poor does not include the abolition of poverty and pain, but merely the assertion that the rich will soon suffer worse in their place.

The idea that the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven is the humblest, as implied at Mark 10 xlii-xlv, need hardly trouble us. As Jesus observes, kings and princes in the ancient world were unashamedly self-aggrandising and boastful, and thus offensive to God who regards all human beings alike as dust and ashes and simply cannot abide arrogance. As the earthly satrap for the greatest tyrant of all, Jesus was merely the pioneer for those many future tyrants who posture as "servants" to the people they command, manipulate and butcher.