The Unflinching Kingdom and Its Hinge Text: Luke 7:24-30
Introduction: The Great Collision
We come now to a passage where the Lord Jesus Christ, having just dealt with the doubts of John the Baptist, turns His attention to the crowds. John is in prison, his faith is being tested in the fire, and he sent messengers to ask Jesus if He was the one, or if they should look for another. Jesus gave them the evidence, the blind see, the lame walk, the dead are raised, and then He sends them away. But He does not let the moment pass. He uses this interaction as a hinge, a pivot point, to teach the multitudes about the nature of true spiritual reality, the nature of His kingdom, and the nature of the man who stood as the great transition point between the old covenant and the new.
This is a passage of stark contrasts. We have the wilderness prophet contrasted with the palace courtier. We have the greatest man born of women contrasted with the least in the kingdom. We have the baptism of repentance contrasted with the stiff-necked rejection of the religious elite. In short, we have a great collision of two worlds. The old world, represented by the rugged, uncompromising ministry of John, is giving way to the new world of the kingdom of God. And Jesus is explaining the rules of engagement.
Our generation is one that despises these kinds of contrasts. We prefer shades of gray. We like our prophets to be more like life coaches and our religion to be more like a comfortable hobby. We want a Jesus who affirms, not a Jesus who confronts. But the Jesus we meet in this passage is a sword-drawer. He is forcing a decision. He is asking the crowd, and by extension He is asking us, "What did you go out to see?" What are you looking for in this whole business of religion? Are you looking for something to entertain you, something to soothe you, or are you looking for the raw, untamed reality of the living God? How you answer that question determines everything.
John the Baptist was the hinge of redemptive history, and in these verses, Jesus explains why that hinge is so crucial. He was the end of an era and the herald of a new one. And the response to John, as we will see, was a preview of the response to Jesus Himself. To accept John was to prepare the way for Christ. To reject John was to reject the very purpose of God for your life.
The Text
And when the messengers of John had left, He began to speak to the crowds about John, “What did you go out into the wilderness to behold? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft garments? Behold, those who are splendidly clothed and live in luxury are found in royal palaces! But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and even more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written, ‘BEHOLD, I SEND MY MESSENGER AHEAD OF YOU, WHO WILL PREPARE YOUR WAY BEFORE YOU.’ I say to you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” And when all the people and the tax collectors heard this, they acknowledged God’s justice, having been baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and the scholars of the Law rejected God’s purpose for themselves, not having been baptized by John.
(Luke 7:24-30 LSB)
No Reeds, No Robes (vv. 24-25)
Jesus begins by challenging the crowd's motives. They had flocked to the wilderness to see John, but what were they really after?
"What did you go out into the wilderness to behold? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft garments? Behold, those who are splendidly clothed and live in luxury are found in royal palaces!" (Luke 7:24-25)
The first image is that of "a reed shaken by the wind." This is a picture of a man with no backbone, a people-pleaser, a spiritual weather vane. He bends with every gust of popular opinion or political pressure. Was John the Baptist like that? Did you go out to see a man who would tell you what you wanted to hear? The question is rhetorical and dripping with irony. John was the furthest thing from a reed. He was an oak. He was a granite cliff. He called the religious leaders a brood of vipers and told a king that his marriage was adulterous. That is what got him thrown in prison. He did not bend; he broke the opposition or was broken by it, but he never bent.
The modern church is full of reeds. We have pulpits full of men who are terrified of offending anyone, except for God. They trim their sails to the cultural winds, carefully avoiding any topic that might get them cancelled. They are shaken by the wind of feminism, the wind of LGBTQ affirmation, the wind of critical race theory. Jesus is asking us, is that what you want? Is that what you think a man of God is? John was no reed.
The second image is "a man dressed in soft garments." This is a picture of a man who loves comfort, luxury, and the approval of the elite. These are the court prophets, the smooth-talking religious professionals who live in Herod's palace. They wear splendid clothes, eat fine food, and never say anything to upset the king. They are tamed, domesticated, and utterly useless to the kingdom of God. John, by contrast, wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt, and his diet was locusts and wild honey. He was a man utterly detached from the world's system of honor and comfort.
Jesus is drawing a sharp line. The kingdom of God does not advance through compromise or comfort. It advances through rugged, unflinching, wilderness prophets. It advances through men who fear God more than they fear kings, and who love the truth more than they love their own lives. Jesus is forcing the crowd to evaluate their own expectations. If you are looking for a soft, accommodating, therapeutic faith, you need to go to the royal palaces. You will find it among the Herods of this world. But if you are looking for God, you must go to the wilderness.
More Than a Prophet (vv. 26-28)
Having established what John was not, Jesus now declares what he was.
"But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and even more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written, ‘BEHOLD, I SEND MY MESSENGER AHEAD OF YOU, WHO WILL PREPARE YOUR WAY BEFORE YOU.’ I say to you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he." (Luke 7:26-28 LSB)
So, was he a prophet? "Yes," Jesus says, and then He raises the stakes: "and even more than a prophet." All the other prophets, from Moses to Malachi, pointed to a Messiah who was coming in the distant future. They saw His day from afar. But John was the man on the ground. He was the immediate forerunner. He had the unique privilege of pointing to the Messiah and saying, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" He was the best man at the wedding. He was the one Malachi prophesied would come in the spirit and power of Elijah to prepare the way of the Lord (Mal. 3:1).
Because of this unique role, Jesus bestows upon him an astonishing commendation: "among those born of women there is no one greater than John." Think about that. Greater than Abraham, the father of the faithful. Greater than Moses, the lawgiver. Greater than David, the king. Greater than Isaiah, the eagle-eyed prophet. In terms of his strategic importance in redemptive history, John stands at the pinnacle of the old covenant. He is the final prophet, the culmination of all that came before.
But then Jesus immediately introduces a stunning paradox. "Yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he." How can this be? This is not a statement about John's personal character or salvation. It is a statement about covenantal position. John stood on the threshold of the kingdom, but he did not fully enter into its realities in the same way that believers after Pentecost would. He preached the coming kingdom, but he did not live to see the resurrected Christ, the outpouring of the Spirit, and the birth of the Church. The least believer in the new covenant, the most obscure Christian in a small town, has a greater position than John. Why? Because we are united to the risen Christ. We have been baptized into His body. The Holy Spirit dwells within us. We see the cross and the empty tomb not as a future promise, but as a finished reality. We stand on this side of the resurrection. John was the greatest man of the old age, but the new age, the age of the kingdom, has dawned, and even the smallest child in that kingdom has a greater privilege than the greatest man who came before it.
Two Responses to God's Purpose (vv. 29-30)
Luke, the narrator, then inserts a commentary on how the crowd reacted to Jesus' words. This is not part of Jesus' speech, but an explanation of the spiritual dynamics at play. And it reveals two diametrically opposed responses.
"And when all the people and the tax collectors heard this, they acknowledged God’s justice, having been baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and the scholars of the Law rejected God’s purpose for themselves, not having been baptized by John." (Luke 7:29-30 LSB)
The first response is from the common people and the tax collectors. These were the outcasts, the sinners, the ones who knew they were spiritually bankrupt. When they heard John's preaching, a message of radical repentance, they responded. They were baptized by him, publicly confessing their sins and their need for a righteousness they did not possess. And so, when they heard Jesus' high praise of John, they "acknowledged God's justice." The word could be translated "they justified God." They affirmed that God's way was right. John's hard preaching was exactly what they needed, and in receiving it, they were prepared to receive Jesus.
Their baptism was the key. It was an act of humility. It was a declaration that they were on the wrong side of the line and needed to get right with God. By submitting to John's baptism, they were aligning themselves with God's purpose.
But there was a second response. "But the Pharisees and the scholars of the Law rejected God’s purpose for themselves, not having been baptized by John." These were the religious insiders. They were the men who had memorized the law, who tithed their mint and dill, who prided themselves on their righteousness. They were the respectable ones. And they looked at John's ministry and said, "No, thank you." They refused his baptism because to accept it would be to admit that they were sinners in need of repentance. Their self-righteousness was a fortress that God's grace could not penetrate.
Notice the devastating phrase: they "rejected God's purpose for themselves." The Greek is literally "they nullified the counsel of God for themselves." God had a plan for them, a plan of salvation that began with the preparatory work of John. But they slammed the door on it. Their pride made them immune to grace. They thought they were defending the law, but they were actually fighting against the God of the law. They were so busy building their own little kingdoms of religious performance that they missed the arrival of the true King.
Conclusion: The Un-Baptized Heart
This passage lays a choice before every one of us. There are only two paths. There is the path of the tax collector, and there is the path of the Pharisee. There is the path of humility, and there is the path of pride.
The gateway to the kingdom of God is a low gate. You have to stoop to get through it. You have to come to the end of your own righteousness. You have to submit to the baptism of repentance, acknowledging that you are a sinner and that your only hope is in the mercy of God. The people who do this are the ones who justify God. They are the ones who enter the kingdom and find that, though they are the least, they are made greater than the greatest of the old saints.
The alternative is to reject God's purpose for yourself. It is to stand on your own record, to trust in your own religious resume, to refuse the humbling call to repent. This is the way of the Pharisee. And it is the way of damnation. They thought they were so righteous that they did not need John's baptism, and in so doing, they disqualified themselves from receiving the One to whom John pointed.
Do not be mistaken. The spirit of the Pharisee is alive and well today. It is present in every heart that bristles at the call to repent. It is present in every church that preaches a soft, therapeutic gospel that would never offend a modern Herod. It is present whenever we trust in our own morality, our own political tribe, or our own theological sophistication, rather than casting ourselves wholly on the mercy of God in Jesus Christ.
What did you go out to see? A reed, or a rock? A courtier, or a prophet? Your answer to that question reveals the state of your heart. May God give us the grace to be the kind of people who justify Him, who humble ourselves under His mighty hand, and who gladly receive the baptism of repentance that opens the door to the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.