Who's the Greatest?

Who’s the greatest NBA basketball player of all time? One problem with that question is what criteria would be being used to determine that. We could gauge that title on their ability to shoot, dribble, pass, defend or rebound, the number of national titles won, etc. But there are plenty of professional basketball players who do those fairly well most of the time (or they wouldn’t be in the NBA). Maybe we determine that title based on popularity, off-court behavior, or the amount of money they’ve earned in their career. 

The Jews had an idea of who the greatest king in Israel would be, using David as the criteria, or Solomon, or what they built, or who submitted to them, but Jesus claimed to be greater than all those:
Matthew 12:42, “The Queen of the South… came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now something greater than Solomon is here.” 
Matthew 12:6-8, “I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” 

Jesus’ claim to be greater than wisdom, the temple, even the Sabbath was a big claim for someone to make, especially to a group like the Jews who regarded their ancestors as being the G.O.A.T. (Greatest Of All Time). 

Perhaps similar to the contest that Elijah had with King Ahab in 1 Kings 18, the “god” that showed up was the greater god. Ba’al was on vacation, or sleeping, or…didn’t exist! But God showed up in a big way. Jesus, or Immanuel (God with us), showed up on earth challenging those peoples and ideals that had been propped up as the greatest. 

The contest between the religious leaders and Jesus began early in Jesus’ ministry and would last until they killed Him. Yet as Jesus tells Nicodemus of God’s standard of greatness in their private meeting (John 3), He shares with him the real measure of what makes up “greatness” in God’s eyes. 

John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” This simple statement has become one of the most recognizable and most popular verses in the Bible. In this statement is a divine declaration of what is great! The greatest God gave the world the greatest opportunity to share in the greatest promise by avoiding the greatest tragedy. Jesus set a new standard of what determines The Greatest!