Lk. 1:76

I was talking with a friend the other day about the sentence, "Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist; but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he." (Lk. 7:28) What does it mean, that John was the greatest of all born among women? He lived in the open and ate locusts, served as kind of a sideshow for the skeptical and ended up in prison and beheaded at the behest of a nymphet. And what about even the least in the kingdom of God will be greater than him? How can you compare John's life to the kingdom? Some of the Church fathers wrote that what made John great was nothing he did or said, but the mere fact that he was announcing the Messiah; in other words, it was his relationship to Christ, ministering to the One whom all the other prophets could only long for, that made him great.

So look back at Zacharias' Benedictus, and there it is. This poor old guy hadn't spoken in some nine months, and he was busting his seams after living for three months with the Holy Fetus. Suddenly his tongue is loosed, and his first words are of praise - not for John, the miraculous child of his old age, but for the still-unborn Jesus. He goes on for eight verses, and then finally gets to his own newborn son. "And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Highest ..." John is great only because of his relationship with Messiah, who comes first.

As for the other point, though John ministered to the Christ in humility, those in the kingdom of God will serve Him in His glory, elevating them above anything that could think of existing in this fallen creation.