By Ken Yates

I attended one of our nation’s military academies when I went to college. There were around 4,000 young cadets at the institution. We were studying to become future military leaders. The buildings where we worked and lived were named after past military leaders. We read of their exploits and saw their portraits hanging on walls around campus. These men were our heroes, and we aspired to be like them. On occasion, one of these heroes would come and speak to us. It was always thrilling to hear their stories.

There were other people, however, whom we barely noticed. Most people we met did not have the drive we had. In our opinion, they had not accomplished anything extraordinary. We did not see anything in them that we wanted to emulate. One of those people was Bill Crawford.

JUST A JANITOR

Bill was one of the many janitors who worked at the academy. These men were responsible for cleaning the communal areas of the school. They would buff the floors of the long hallways we walked through daily. We also had communal bathrooms. The toilets and shower stalls needed cleaning. Young men generated a lot of trash, and Bill’s job was to ensure the trash cans were emptied regularly.

While we did not outwardly disrespect Bill, it was easy to overlook him. He was around sixty years old and began showing signs of his age. He did not have the energy that we twenty-year-old cadets had. We saw him taking trash to dumpsters and waxing our floors with a buffer. If we ever thought about him, we looked at him as somebody who had never done anything great in his life. He was, after all, reaching retirement age and was cleaning up our messes.

I remember when generals like Jimmy Doolittle and Omar Bradley came and spoke to us. They were the kind of guys we noticed and applauded. Bill was not like that. Even though we saw him daily, most of us didn’t even know his name.

That was about to change.

A STARTLING DISCOVERY

As cadets, we studied military history. One night, one of my classmates was reading about Medal of Honor recipients. These men were the epitome of what it means to be a hero. Most of us had never met one personally. We could only read about how great they were.

My classmate was reading an interesting account of a World War II soldier named William Crawford. Crawford was a young Army private originally from Colorado. While fighting in Italy, he and his fellow soldiers were pinned down by machine gun fire. Crawford saved many of his fellow soldiers’ lives by rushing toward the enemy that was firing at them. With bullets flying all around him, he approached and destroyed three machine gun nests. He had faced almost certain death to save the lives of his friends.

After the battle, Crawford was captured by the Nazis and became a prisoner of war. The Army thought he had been killed, but still wanted to honor him because of his amazing heroic deeds. His father, back in the United States, accepted the Medal of Honor on behalf of the son he and our nation thought was dead. It is the highest honor our nation can give its military heroes. A year later, Crawford was set free and returned home.

This is the kind of story that a cadet at a military academy would find awe-inspiring. He would want to meet a man like William Crawford and buy him dinner. As my classmate read the story, it occurred to him that our janitor probably had the same name as this hero from WW II. Bill is usually short for William. He vaguely remembered that someone had mentioned that Bill was an Army veteran. It sure was a coincidence that our academy was located in Colorado, which was the home of that heroic soldier. Bill, our janitor, was also roughly the same age as the private who saved all those lives in Italy years before. There was a picture of William Crawford, and even though it was over thirty years old, it bore a striking resemblance to Bill the Janitor.

Those were some strange coincidences. But surely, our Bill could not be William Crawford, could he? The man who cleaned our toilets and took out our trash—a man we saw daily but hardly noticed—could not be the greatest military hero we had ever met.

To put such a notion completely to rest, my classmate decided to ask Bill. Surely, Bill would find it hilarious that anybody would think he was such a national treasure.

IS THIS YOU?

When Bill came to work the next day, the curious cadet showed him the article with William Crawford’s picture. He got right to the point and asked, “Bill, is this you?”

I am told that Bill looked at the picture for a while before answering. He said, “Yes. That was a long time ago.”

I am not sure a person who has never had any connection with the military can fully appreciate the impact this revelation had on the cadets who knew Bill. There were also active-duty Air Force personnel who worked at the academy. They were astonished to learn who this janitor was. To say that Bill’s life changed from that moment on would be a gross understatement.

Whenever the cadets had a military function, their janitor would be the guest of honor. He was asked to give speeches. When cadets greeted him in the hallways, “Hey, Bill,” would no longer do. It was now, “How are doing, Mr. Crawford?” I don’t know this for sure, but I would venture to say that some cadets carried their own trash to the dumpster instead of leaving it for Mr. Crawford. I bet they were also tidier in a lot of different ways. It didn’t seem right that Mr. Crawford had to clean up after twenty-year-old cadets.

The bottom line is that Mr. Crawford was given the respect he so richly deserved. But he would soon get an even greater honor.

THE PRESIDENT IS COMING TO TOWN

It is customary that when a living recipient is awarded the Medal of Honor, the President of the United States makes the presentation in person. Because William Crawford was in a POW camp and thought to be dead, that did not happen for him in 1944. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan came to the academy to address the graduating class. When he heard about the janitor in Colorado, he decided to make things right.

The graduation took place in a packed football stadium. Thousands of people were there, many for the first time. As they looked, through binoculars, at the honored guests on the stage, they would have recognized many of them. There were plenty of generals. Many dignitaries from Washington, DC accompanied President Reagan. Guests would have seen many of these men and women on television.

There was one man on that stage, however, whom they did not know. He was an older man and was not wearing Air Force blue. He wore Army green. If anybody gave him a second look, they might have thought he was part of the president’s security detail. Maybe he was the person who would pick up the trash after all the important people left when the ceremony was over.

I can only imagine what the people in that stadium thought when President Reagan said he wanted to honor a particular man on that stage. Of all the powerful people on that stage, he called William Crawford to join him at the podium. The actions of a private who fought in World War II in Italy four decades earlier were read. It almost sounded like a myth. After they were recounted, Reagan placed William Crawford’s Medal of Honor around his neck.

On a day when graduates were honored for their accomplishments and numerous honored guests were in attendance, the man with the greatest honor was an unknown janitor. Only he stood side by side with the president.

AN ILLUSTRATION OF BIBLICAL TRUTH

The events of William Crawford’s life provide an illustration of the parable the Lord taught in Luke 14:7-11. He said that when we are invited to dinner, we should not seek to sit in the seats reserved for honored guests. Instead, we ought to take a lowly seat. We should allow the dinner host to call us forward and seat us in a place of honor.

A major point in this parable is that we should not think too highly of ourselves. We should be humble, as Jesus was. We should not concern ourselves with how the world sees us but with how He sees us. He will exalt those who humbly do what He commands them to do in His Word.

William Crawford was a military example of what that looks like. He had faithfully served his country. For years, he was surrounded by people who did not appreciate his sacrifices. They were not even aware of them. Yet, he continued to do what was required of him. He continued serving those in the military who were around him. He was content with living outside the spotlight. If we could picture him at a dinner with the cadets and Air Force people around him, he would be sitting in the back row.

The Commander-in-Chief, however, called him forward. The president gave him the most honored seat in the house.

THE KING IS COMING TO TOWN

Just as President Reagan came to Colorado and honored William Crawford, we are told that the King of Kings, Jesus Christ, will one day come and judge believers. Everybody who has believed in Him for eternal life will live in His kingdom forever. But Luke 14:7-11 tells us that He will honor those who did what He told them to do. He will call them forward and give them positions of honor in that kingdom.

I must admit, I am thrilled by the story of William Crawford. But I know that it will not be nearly as thrilling as what we see when Christ comes and honors His humble servants. In our churches and in our lives, there are Christian heroes walking around incognito; we are probably unaware of how great they are. They are not famous. They don’t pastor large churches or have fancy theological degrees. Others might even look down on them. They might even be called heretics.

What they do, however, is humbly serve the Lord. They are faithful to Him. They are content knowing that He is the Owner of the house–the Host of the dinner. Only His opinion matters.

I try to picture what it will be like when the Lord comes and judges His servants at the Judgment Seat of Christ. He will call some forward to stand with Him. He will declare their deeds done in service to Him (Matt 16:27). Instead of Medals of Honor, He will give them eternal crowns.

I have a lot of questions about that day. I wonder what it will be like. William Crawford surprised a lot of people. I don’t know whether he was a believer or not, but I know that when the Lord comes there will be a lot of people like him. There will be Christian William Crawfords who surprise us. How great will it be to see the heroes of the faith get the honor they deserve from the King?

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Ken Yates is a retired Army chaplain (Lt. Col). He has many theological degrees, including a Ph.D. from D.T.S. in New Testament. He leads the GES international ministry, cohosts the daily podcast, and assists Bob in all aspects of the GES ministry. His new book, Elisabeth, is a powerful testimony to the power of God manifested in a Christ-centered family. He and his wife, Pam, live in Columbia, SC.