What can these words mean? Well, let us consider what constituted the highest, that is, the spiritual greatness of the prophets, and try to discover whether in relation to all these things it is not true that the very least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than the greatest of the prophets.
I. They were inspired men. Some of them had great natural genius. All of them received the supernatural illumination of the Holy Ghost. They had revealed to them the eternal principles of righteousness by which God governs the world. But your knowledge and view of the Divine character and will is far larger than theirs was. The very least knows what they did not know the story of the Lord Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh.
II. But the prophets, you may say, were illustrious for their sanctity. How can the very least in the kingdom of heaven be greater than they were? Here again we must distinguish between what may be called the natural force of moral character and supernatural holiness. There is a genius in some men for heroic forms of goodness, as there is genius in others for poetry, music, eloquence, and art. The magnificent energy of Elijah, the chivalry of David's better days, the stately dignity of Abraham these may not be ours; but the very least in the kingdom of heaven has an element and a spring of holiness which did not belong to any of them. In the sense in which we are in Christ they could not be; and in the sense in which we are regenerate they were not. The Spirit that Christ possessed is granted now to us. We have possibilities of holiness higher and greater far than belonged to the saints of the old dispensation.
III. The third element in the greatness of the prophets consists, no doubt, in the intimacy of their relations to God. They were God's chosen servants; they were trusted by God with great duties: some of them were called God's friends, but a nobler title belongs to the very least in the kingdom of heaven than belonged to the very greatest of them. We belong to the race that has sprung from the Second Adam, and the very least of those who have sprung from the Second Adam must be greater than the greatest of those that sprang from the first.
IV. They had close access to God. This was an element of greatness in the old prophets, and yet remember that their access to God was access to God under the conditions of the old economy. It was to be had, not as we may have it now, by the immediate approach of our soul to the eternal Father, through Christ Jesus our Lord, but it was to be had through the ministry of the priests, and through the efficacy of sacrifice. Now we are greater in all this than the prophets were, for God is nearer now to the least in the kingdom of heaven than He was to the greatest in the old days.
R. W. Dale, Penny Pulpit,new series, No. 394.
References: Luke 7:24-28. Preacher's Monthly,vol. i., p. 208. Luke 7:28. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. v., p. 89. Luke 7:29. Ibid.,vol. x., p. 99. Luke 7:29-35. W. Hay Aitken, Mission Sermons,vol. ii., p. 183.Luke 7:31-34. D. Fraser, Metaphors of the Gospels,p. 127. Luke 7:31-35. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. xiv., p. 91; R. Lorimer, Bible Studies in Life and Truth,p. 293.Luke 7:33-35. G. Calthrop, Pulpit Recollections,pp. 57, 69.