Our Lord here recognises the fact that there will be varieties of
position, that there will be an outer and an inner court in the
Temple, and an aristocracy in the kingdom. 'In a great house there
are not only vessels of gold and silver, but of wood and of clay.'
When a man passes into the territory, it still remains an open
question how far into the blessed depths of the land he will
penetrate. Or, to put away the figure, if as Christian people we
have laid hold of Jesus Christ, and in Him have received the kingdom
and the new life-power, there still remains the question, how much
and how faithfully we shall utilise the gifts, and what place in the
earthly experience and manifestation of His kingdom we shall occupy.
There are great and small within it.
So it comes to be a very important question for us all, how we may
not merely be content, as so many of us are, with having scraped
inside and just got both feet across the boundary line, but may
become great in the kingdom. Let me answer that question in three
sentences. The little ones in Christ's kingdom become great by the
continual exercise of the same things which admitted them there at
first. If greatness depends on position in reference to Jesus
Christ, the closer we come to Him and the more we keep ourselves in
loving touch and fellowship with Him, the greater in the kingdom we
shall be. Again, the little ones in Christ's kingdom become great by
self-forgetting service. 'He that will be great among you, let him
be your minister.' Self-regard dwarfs a man, self-oblivion magnifies
him. If ever you come across, even in the walks of daily life,
traces in people of thinking much of themselves, and of living
mainly for themselves, down go these men in your estimation at once.
Whether you have a beam of the same sort in your own eye or not, you
can see the mote in theirs, and you lower your appreciation of them
immediately. It is the same in Christ's kingdom, only in an infinitely
loftier fashion. There, to become small is to become great. Again, the
little ones in Christ's kingdom become great, not only by cleaving
close to the Source of all greatness, and deriving thence a higher
dignity by the suppression and crucifixion of self-esteem and
self-regard, but by continual obedience to their Lord's commandment.
As He said on the Sermon on the Mount, 'Whoso shall do and teach one
of the least of these commandments shall be called great in the kingdom
of heaven.' The higher we are, the more we are bound to punctilious
obedience to the smallest injunction. The more we are obedient to
the lightest of His commandments, the greater we become. Thus the
least in the kingdom may become the greatest there, if only, cleaving
close to Christ, he forgets himself, and lives for others, and does
the Father's will.
III. Lastly, I travel for a moment beyond my text, and note the
perfect greatness of all in the perfected kingdom.
The very notion of a kingdom of God established in reality, however
imperfectly here on earth, demands that somewhere, and some time,
and somehow, there should be an adequate, a universal and an eternal
manifestation and establishment of it. If, here and now, dotted
about over the world, there are men who, with much hindrance and
many breaks in their obedience, are still the subjects of that
realm, and trying to do the will of God, unless we are reduced to
utter bewilderment intellectually, there must be a region in which
that will shall be perfectly done, shall be continually done, shall
be universally done. The obedience that we render to Him, just
because it is broken by so much rebellion, slackened by so much
indifference, hindered by so many clogs, hampered by so many
limitations, points, by its attainments and its imperfections alike,
to a region where the clogs and limitations and interruptions shall
have all vanished, and the will of the Lord shall be the life and
the light thereof.
So there rises up before us the fair prospect of that heavenly
kingdom, in which all that here is interrupted and thwarted tendency
shall have become realised effect.
That state must necessarily be a state of continual advance. For if
greatness consists in apprehension and appropriation of Christ and
His work, there are no limits to the possible expansion and
assimilation of a human heart to Him, and the wealth of His glory is
absolutely boundless. An infinite Christ to be assimilated, and an
indefinite capacity of assimilation in us, make the guarantee that
eternity shall see the growing progress of the subjects of the
kingdom, in resemblance to the King.
If there is this endless progress, which is the only notion of
heaven that clothes with joy and peace the awful thought of unending
existence, then there will be degrees there too, and the old
distinction of 'least' and 'greatest' in the kingdom will subsist to
the end. The army marches onwards, but they are not all abreast.
They that are in front do not intercept any of the blessings or of
the light that come to the rearmost files; and they that are behind
are advancing and envy not those who lead the march.
Only let us remember, brother, that the distinction of least and
great in the kingdom, in its imperfect forms on earth, is carried
onwards into the kingdom in its perfect form into heaven. The
highest point of our attainment here is the starting-point of our
progress yonder. 'An entrance shall be ministered'; it may be
'ministered abundantly,' or we may be 'saved yet so as by fire.' Let
us see to it that, being least in our own eyes, we belong to the
greatest in the kingdom. And that we may, let us hold fast by the
Source of all greatness, Christ Himself, and so we shall be launched
on a career of growing greatness, through the ages of eternity. To
be joined to Him is greatness, however small the world may think us.
To be separate from Him is to be small, though the hosannas of the
world may misname us great.