Abandoning Self

I wonder what John the Baptist thought when he saw Jesus coming out of the crowd and walking down toward the waters of the Jordan.  We have no idea how long it had been since the two of them had seen each other.  Their families were related and it is likely they spent some time together.  They surely knew each other's story.  It is hard to imagine that Elizabeth and Mary did not tell their sons about the first meeting the boys had while both were still in the womb.    

Before Jesus showed up at the Jordan, John spoke of Jesus by saying, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me..." (Mark 1:7). Given their history, I wonder how John, who was expecting Jesus, actually felt when "Jesus came from Nazareth  of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan." (Mark 1:9)  Even as John's imprisonment and death seem to trigger deep emotion in Jesus, seeing the One he had been told to proclaim as coming must have had a profound impact on the man from the wilderness.  When Jesus showed up the Jordan, I wonder if John realized his ministry was coming to end.  With the coming of Jesus, he had fulfilled his part of the plan God was working out in those days.  

One of the many things Jesus and John the Baptist had in common was their personal abandonment to the plan of God.  Nothing was more important than being obedient to that plan.  In both cases their absolute desire to be obedient to God took them to deaths that were both untimely and unjust.   During these day of Lent when we are called to consider how much we we are willing to give up as expressions of our obedience to God, it would do us well to look at these two and see once again what it means to completely abandon self for the purposes of God.