The disciples followed Jesus wherever He went. Disciples were not the same each time, but probably a rotation of people. For instance, many of the same crowd that waved palm leaves when Jesus entered Jerusalem for his impending triumphal ride were likely there the following week when He was crucified and yelling, “Crucify Him!”
Disciples were not just followers
of Jesus but pupils. They followed Jesus to learn about Him. Of course,
Jesus was God in the flesh, just as He contended, but was seen by many as a
king of Judea. Those who followed Him would soon discover that he was a
different sort of fellow; He was not a ‘king’ but more so a servant. He
was very unlike King Herod or his eldest son.
His kingdom was and is not of
this world, but His pupils knew history; kings had power and those who followed
kings obtained power, so their question should have been anticipated, “Who is
the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” They were there to learn, so this was a
very significant question.
Who do you think is the greatest
in the Kingdom of Heaven? not withstanding the obvious; that God is the
greatest there as He sits on His throne.
They were seeking who of themselves
would be greatest in the Kingdom of God. Usually, the greatest in the kingdom
would be the royal family — anyone of the gens of the king. Usually, the
oldest son would be greatest and at that period in Israel’s history, Antipater
should have been the greatest there. He, however, was killed on orders of his
father, as one of the contenders for Herod’s throne. Antipater was noted for
his deception, blaming everybody but himself to be adversaries of Herod.
Antipater was the epitome of who
should not be the greatest in the kingdom of Herod. He was a plotter and
schemer. He believed that as the oldest that he deserved to be king.
Herod had eliminated many who
would have been greatest in his kingdom and most of those were his immediate
family.
Herod had tried to eliminate
Jesus as one of the contenders for his throne. He tried to murder Jesus, the
newborn king, in the massacre of the innocents. In his will, Herod, according
to Josephus, plotted revenge that after he died, his death would not be
announced, but the contenders for his throne be slaughtered.
Antipas died because of he was
the eldest and would be king based on the law of primogeniture. However, Caesar
would need to ordain any candidate for kingship.
Antipas was far from innocent. He
was the author of court intrigue. Herod would determine who would be his heir
and it would not be Antipater, Mariamne (his wife), Alexander nor Aristobulus (his
sons), or even other close relatives. Who would be greatest in the Herodian
kingdom changed from day to day.
No wonder the students questioned
Jesus about the line of descent in His Kingdom. Would it be one of the
apostles? One of the Herodians, A member of the Sanhedrin? One of the chief
priests? Or even one of them?
Jesus proved to be different; “Whosoever
therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in
the kingdom of heaven” (Mat 18:3).
Both Alexander and Aristobulus
were humble and neither ever sought to be king, but like Jesus, they were
killed.
Antipas was arrogant and
deceptive. His M.O. was to diminish others to elevate himself. As it turned
out, the Herodians skipped a generation. Herod Agrippa (the grandson) was the
last king of Judea, replacing the Herodian throne that had been empty since AD
6.
There was no king in Israel, and
just as in days past, things went wild! During the time of the judges, “In
those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right
in his own eyes” (Jud 17:6). The same was true when Judea had no king from AD 6
to AD 41 from the day of Jesus’s majority until after His death.
Jesus was obviously the greatest
in the kingdom of Judea when the disciples asked that question. Were they aware
that Jesus was the legitimate king of the Jews as the ‘son of David’? Surely,
as students they would know that. Wisely, though, they were more concerned
about the Eternal King and His court, not just the Judean kingdom which was
just a small part of the Herodian kingdom.
By asking that simple question,
they identified Jesus as ‘King of kings.’ They wondered who would be next in
line in heaven after Jesus, in the same manner as who was in line for the Herodian
throne.
By the same token, the apostles were wondering about that as well, to wit:
Answered Peter and said
unto Him, “Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed you; what shall we have
therefore?” And Jesus said unto them, “Verily I say unto you, ‘That you which
have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the
throne of His glory, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve
tribes of Israel’” (Mat 19:27-28)
Those who followed Jesus all the
way to their deaths would be judges, and there would be one King. Unlike Herod,
Jesus would never need to worry about who would be king!
Jesus told the disciples the
first step to greatness: You need to get there first before you worry about
that! “Except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall
not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Mat 18:3).
Jesus was King of Heaven because
He was the gens of God and the only legitimate heir to the Throne by
blood. His was by the Law of Primogeniture — the firstborn son who should be
king.
To enter the kingdom of God
required conversion, a turning around, perhaps back to newborn children.
In other words, to enter the court where God sits requires a rebirth (‘born
again;’ John 3:7) wherein those who are converted are done so by engendering
from God above.
God engendered to make Adam in
His Image by breathing life into his forehead. As such, God imbued the mind of
Adam with His Image, or Shadow. In other words, Adam had the Holy Spirit of God
placed in his soul to make it alive.
Hence, born again is to die to
the world to live in the realm of God. A Christian dies to the world by circumcising
the heart, or the flesh.
Conversion is basically allowing
God to cut off the flesh, not just the foreskin, but all the desires of all the
flesh. The flesh is full of pride and lust. It is the idol to whom people bow
and it requires appeasement.
To appease Antipas would have
meant that Herod and Caesar would both agree to make him king. That would
satisfy his fleshly desire to be great. However, Antipas died without ever
becoming king.
Jesus satisfied his own qualification,
speaking with the authority of God: “Whosoever therefore shall humble Himself
as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Mat
18:4).
Jesus was noted for His humility;
He was the Servant of servants — He would even wash the feet of the apostles. He
humbled Himself and qualified as greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, and for any
others to be greatest there, they must follow His example.
“Whosoever” — any of them, not
just the apostles — must humble themselves. That is to see themselves in a
proper perspective; that they are of the Wicked One and deserve death. That is
because their gens are of Satan (Lucifer) who seeks to be greatest in the
Kingdom of God (Isa 14:13-14). The fact that any person seeks to be
great disqualifies them as potential kings or even judges.
Rather than be concerned about
greatness in heaven, they should have asked the question that Nicodemus asked, “How
can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his
mother's womb, and be born?” (John 3:4). Of course, Jesus revealed how to be
born again, but for now settle that you must be turned around from what
you are; you must be changed.
That raises another question,
just what are you before rebirth?
David found out and revealed it; “Behold,
I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51”5).
Rather than formed in the Image
of God, the image was of the Wicked One (nahas) — like a snake.
You must have a right perspective
of who you are. You must never have undue self-esteem because that is a
prideful perspective. Like He called the Pharisees, ‘vipers,’ Jesus would see
any sinner in the same perspective. We all are like our ‘father,’ the devil (John
8:44) and that is not something to have pride in, nor is it righteous to behold
yourself with high estimation.
To change requires that you
are not what you could be to be what you must be. Pertaining to
your own selves, in the New Testament there are only two must be’s: (1)
You must be born again (John 3:7), and (2) you must be saved (Acts 4:12).
‘Rebirth’ is the cause and ‘saved’
is the effect. Hence, to be made great requires rebirth by the Spirit of adoption
by God (Rom 8:15). To enter heaven requires a great change, from a natural born
child of the devil to a supra-natural child of God.
Just like Tiberius Caesar was adopted
by Augustus to make him great in the manner of his adoptive father, anybody
must be adopted God and be of His Household to be made great.
Humbling oneself is the
criteria that Jesus used. That means understanding that you do deserve neither
heaven nor greatness, but know that you are like a beast that desires a
regenning to even be of God’s kind!
When John Newton wrote the song, Amazing
Grace, he got it mostly right. ‘Such a worm as I,” is very close to, Such
a snake as I.
To contend for greatest
first requires that you understand that you are not now great. You must
reconcile that you are more brutish than godly and seek genetic improvement
that only God can provide. It is a simple procedure — you must see Jesus as God
to be born again. It is not what you do, but to understand just who God IS
and that as God, Jesus can do it, albeit you cannot change who or what you
are by yourselves.
If you had the power to do that,
then you would be the god. Humbling yourself is understanding that there in One
True God and that is neither you nor any other contender for greatness.
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