Superlative
Superlative: [O]f the highest kind, quality, or order; surpassing all else or others; supreme; extreme: superlative wisdom.
via Dictionary.com
It is almost a wrong label to call the Kingdom superlative. It is Beyond that. John the Baptist was the superlative of human attainment. A life of solitude, of extreme separateness and consecration to the Lord was his. Jesus gave the man this testimony, and the comparison to the Kingdom.
Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
Matthew 11:11
John was a man, a prophet, of the Old Covenant, under the law and order of Moses. He signified the demarcation point between Old an New Covenants. As the Law came through Moses, and Grace and Truth came through Jesus Christ, the exchange between the two marked the transition from the age of the Old Testament and the coming of the Messianic Age.
The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.
Luke 16:16
