"Among those who are born of women ..." If you are thinking of the human race, this is a rather inclusive statement; I can’t think of very many people it leaves out! And this is a statement of Jesus as he offers a summa cum laude of highest praise to one of his associates in the dissemination of truth and light. He says, "Among those who are born of women, there has not arisen a greater prophet than John the Baptizer" (Matthew 11:11; Luke 7:28).

What was it that was so great about John - this son of Zacharias and Elizabeth, this leather-clad, locust-eating rustic from the "hill country" of Judea? Actually, it seems to me, aspects of greatness were breaking out all over this man, the prophet who stands at this end of a long line of prophets. They had spoken hopefully and longingly of the com…