Run the race, pass the baton.
Read time: 6 mins
“A few days later Mary hurried to the hill country of Judea, to the town where Zechariah lived. She entered the house and greeted Elizabeth. At the sound of Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth’s child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, ‘God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed. Why am I so honored, that the mother of my Lord should visit me? When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.’”
Luke 1:39-45 NLT
One of Jesus’ last words of instruction to His disciples was to go and make more disciples. Like a professor instructing His teacher’s assistants, Jesus told His students that even though they still had more learning to do themselves, he wanted them to teach those who were coming behind them. But it goes deeper than that. Some theologians describe discipleship with the word “apprenticeship.” In that time, the followers of a rabbi or teacher wouldn’t just sit in a room for a couple days a week and listen to them lecture. They would drop everything else they were doing, move out, and go to work and live with their teacher. True discipleship involves seeing your teacher live and modeling your life after that. It wasn't just about concepts, it was about lifestyle. This means that closeness was needed for a true rabbi to pass on his way of life.
The disciples had been interns with Jesus for three years, practicing along with Him as He worked. But it was time for them to pass the baton and do the same for others. This was a race and it was bigger than any individual runner. Jesus wanted His students to walk alongside others and show them this new way of life that they had learned by walking alongside Him. He took the time to listen to their stupid ideas and genuinely care about them. Jesus showed the disciples how to live by living close to them, and pouring into them and they were called to do the same thing for others. Our Christian imperative is the same. A different way to describe this calling of discipleship in our modern context may be the concept of mentorship.
Mentorship has two main phases: mentee and mentor. Jesus was the disciples' mentor. He was someone who was more experienced than them and saw the potential in them that they could not yet see. He spent years walking with them and preparing them for this calling. But as Jesus died, resurrected and went to heaven, He passed the baton and called them to do what He had done for them for the others coming behind them.
The disciples weren’t just called to be mentees. They were also called to mentor.
What makes mentorship hard is the transition from being you focused to being others focused. When you're a mentee you are called to receive, but when you're a mentor you're called to give. When you're mentee you're being filled but as a mentor you're doing the pouring. Mentorship forces you to slow down and turn the attention from what God is doing in your life to what God is doing in the lives of those coming behind you, and this is one reason discipleship and mentorship is hard for us.
This story sticks out to me because Elizabeth shows the selfless mentor mindset that we need to adopt on this christian journey. Elizabeth is an old pastor's wife who had an immaculate conception. God touched her barren womb and promised that she would give birth to a great man named John, who would have the power of the prophet Elijah. This miracle baby would turn many to God. Elizabeth was being used by God to carry greatness into this world. God had put something amazing in her for her to carry out. This was her moment to be a part of something great. This was her moment to shine.
Yet, six months into her pregnancy, God calls another woman to have a similar experience. Just like with Elizabeth and her husband Zachariah, angels come to Mary and Joseph and tell them that they will have a miracle baby that will turn many to God. But Mary’s baby will be greater than Elizabeth’s baby. They were both called to something great, but Mary is called to something greater. And God says that what He put in Elizabeth is there for the purpose of preparing the way for what He put in Mary. Elizebeth is called to pass the baton.
I want you to catch this. Elizebeth has been trying and waiting longer, Mary just stumbled into this. She didn't even want to be pregnant. Elizebeth makes more sense to be the mother to someone great. She is married, established and a part of a prominent family, but Mary is a poor, single mom and is a part of a scandalous teen pregnancy. Elizebeth was given the promise first but before she can even see it come to fruition, Mary is taking the spotlight. Mary doesn’t deserve it more than Elizebeth. Mary hasn’t earned it more than Elizebeth. But Elizebeth is called in this season to be a support and not a star.
Elizebteh doesn’t get jealous of Mary. Instead, she immediately recognizes the call on Mary’s life and starts to pour into her. The call to mentor is hard because it is often a call to train what can look like your replacement while you're still in your prime. It’s a call to put someone less qualified, experienced or worthy first so that God can take them further.
What if God placed greatness in you not so that you could be the greatest, but so you could sympathize with and encourage those who are called to more? What if God uplifted you so that the others He wanted to use would see you as a safe place to go for encouragement? Elizebeth understood what Mary was going through just enough to be a safe place to support, encourage and inspire Mary to keep going. Elizebeth didn't selfishly make this about her, she made it about the greater things God wanted to do in the future.
In a relay race, no matter how good you are, you have to pass the baton. And you actually jeopardize the entire race if you hold on too long and make it about yourself. The goal is to run your race with all your might, and then turn all your attention to the person behind you, doing all you can to help them run faster than you did. This is the same in Christianity. It isn't about uplifting yourself. It’s about moving forward so that you can push others forward. Christianity at its core is about others-centered sacrifice. You’re jeopardizing the team if you make it about you and not the continuation of the race. The race is bigger than any one runner.
Elizebeth could have easily been in her feelings about God using someone else after her. But she understood that this was a race. What God put in her was placed there for the purpose of paving the way for what God put in Mary. She was so committed to the team that she was ok with passing if it meant someone else would be scoring the points. A win for the kingdom would be a win for both of them regardless of whose womb it came from.
Our job as mentors is not to build monuments for ourselves but to open doors, build stairs, and erect ladders for the people coming behind us. This takes a special humility and submission to the mission. It’s hard to train the person who is up next and push them to be better than you. It’s hard to recognize when it's time to pass the baton. It’s hard to train the person below you for the position you’ve always wanted. But one theologian says that ministry is like a shooting star-you start unknown, have a few seconds of shine and then you go back into obscurity. Do you want this to be about your few seconds of fame or about making sure the person coming next makes it further than you did?
The goal is not for any one person to get the glory in this race. The goal is for the kingdom to be proclaimed as much as possible. And we can move so much faster if we focus on setting up the next person more than we think about uplifting ourselves.
The mission is more important than the messenger. If Saul had cared more about Israel than he did himself, he would’ve seen how successfully God was using David and poured into him instead of fighting him. If only Joseph’s brothers believed what God spoke over him, they would have encouraged and poured into Joseph instead of throwing him away. If the advisors recognized how God was using Daniel, they should have protected him instead of plotting against him. Supporting who God is using will benefit you more than you trying to uplift yourself.
But this is hard. It’s going to take a new focus and humility to make the kingdom more important than our own personal accolades. We need to stop gate keeping our secrets to success. We need to start pouring into people instead of viewing them as our competition. It's hard to set others up for success instead of building a you centered religion and lifestyle. It takes humility to be like Moses and build up a Joshua so that journey to the promise doesn’t die with you. It takes belief in the mission to be like Paul and write letters from jail so that Timothy can be encouraged to keep preaching the Word when you can't. If we believe in the mission and run our race we can end our deathbed letters to our mentees like Paul did.
“As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing.“
2 Timothy 4:6-8 NLT
Pour yourself out. Finish the race. A team win doesn’t just help you. Rising tide lifts all ships. The prize won't just be for one. It will be for the entire team. Think about how you can uplift those new to Christianity or leadership. Think about how you can be a safe place and listening ear to those coming behind you.
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