Doing the Work with No End in Sight
They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”
He said, “I am not.”
“Are you the Prophet?”
He answered, “No.”
Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet,“I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’ ”
John the Baptist was an epic dude. His diet was more strict than a vegan or a gluten-free person. His hair style required more attention than Lady Gaga. (Imagine: you can never cut your hair!) And his home life – in the wilderness.
Even with all of that, he did not work to draw attention to himself. He talked so much about the coming Messiah that when Jesus showed up, John said “That is the one I was talking about!” Right in front of his face, 2 disciples of John left and followed Jesus. When questioned about the competition, John said some words that would be good for all of us to learn:
‘He must become greater; I must become less.’
John 3:30
What makes the whole thing even richer is that John didn’t even know who he was. In the exchange above, he says that he isn’t Elijah, but later, Jesus would say that John was Elijah. They all knew that Elijah had to come before the Messiah, but John never realized that he was the Elijah that was to come.
Imagine being so obedient to God that you could do what He asked without knowing the big picture. The story of the happy bricklayer that knows he is building a cathedral instead of just stacking bricks is inspiring, but it doesn’t say much about obedience. The guy that stacks those bricks with joy, not knowing what it will be, but doing what God asked, is like John the Baptist. Doing what you are called to do, no matter the fanfare or record books, only to see the greatness of it (if ever) at the end.