Behold, a greater than Solomon is here (Matt. 12: 42). Great things said Jesus about himself. Thinking of this world's darkness, he said: "I am the Light of the world." Thinking of humanity's homelessness: "I am the Door." Thinking of our waywardness: "I am the Way." Thinking of our need of protection: "I am the Good Shepherd." Thinking of our fruitlessness that dishonors God and burglarizes our souls: "I am the Vine." Thinking of the world's deadness in sin: "I am the resurrection, and the life." Thinking of the greatness of Jonah, behind the curtain of whose preaching Nineveh shifted scenes of riot for penitential tears: "A greater than Jonah is here." Thinking of Solomon's wisdom, glory, greatness: "A greater than Solomon is here." But greater is Jesus than anything he is ever likened to - something far more than the most illustrious in the census of the world. His life is an episode between two eternities - one stretching back before all worlds, the other forward forever. Human language falls short of expressing all that he is, even as a thimble lacks capacity to hold Niagara Falls. The Fact of facts, the Bible's theme - he stands alone, august, unique, supreme. All comparisons, all similes, all metaphors but skirt the edges of the glory of this matchless person in whom all sanctities and sufferings unite. "His name shall be called Wonderful!" (Isaiah 9: 6). And, though a thousand names be used, Christ, the loftiest ideal of all literature, the highest personality of all philosophy, the supremest problem of all criticism, the fundamental doctrine of all true theology, the cardinal necessity of all spiritual religion, the outstanding miracle of all ages, was, and is, the superlative of anything you choose to call him. We would pitch our mental tents today on that vast field of thought which Jesus puts before us when, speaking of himself, he said: "Behold, a greater than Solomon is here."
