No Greater Prophet: John the Baptist

When John was in prison he sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus, "Art thou he that should come or do we look for another?" (Matt 11:3). This confused me because I thought John already knew...he had after all baptized Jesus only about 3 months before. Then further reading in the Institute Manuel answered my question. John had a sure knowledge and understanding who Christ was, but John's followers were very loyal to him and seemed to have a hard time "crossing over" to be a disciple of Jesus. John had these two men ask this question, not for him, but for themselves. John knew that his mission was to prepare the way before Jesus and so he was probably concerned that his followers were not accepting Christ as their Messiah.
After these two men had asked their question and departed, Jesus spoke to the people about John and told them that there was "Not a greater prophet than John the Baptist" (Luke 7:28). Joseph Smith, Jr. later expounded on this when he gave 3 reasons why John the Baptist was so great a prophet:

“First. He was entrusted with a divine mission of preparing the way before the face of the Lord. Whoever had such a trust committed to him before or since? No man.
“Secondly. He was entrusted with the important mission, and it was required at his hands, to baptize the Son of Man. Whoever had the honor of doing that? Whoever had so great a privilege and glory?
“Thirdly. John, at that time, was the only legal administrator in the affairs of the kingdom there was then on the earth, and holding the keys of power. The Jews had to obey his instructions or be damned, by their own law; and Christ Himself fulfilled all righteousness in becoming obedient to the law which he had given to Moses on the mount, and thereby magnified it and made it honorable, instead of destroying it. The son of Zacharias wrested the keys, the kingdom, the power, the glory from the Jews, by the holy anointing and decree of heaven, and these three reasons constitute him the greatest prophet born of a woman.” (Smith, Teachings, pp. 275–76.)

I had never heard these things before. During my reading it dawned on me that John the Baptist was the proohet of that dispensation and he was probably loved and revered as much by people of that time as we love and revere Joseph Smith today.

John was also extremely humble in his attitude toward Christ. He knew that his mission had been fulfilled and John was gladly stepping aside so Christ could assume His role of teacher, prophet, and Messiah. I like to do little applications to my life and challenge you to do so also! Let's lose ourselves in this great work! Let's find our missions in life and make Christ at their center. Let's do the will of the Father and be His hands as we serve our fellow man!