Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-february-2-2024
Hebrews 12:1-3
1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
This short reading is actually made up of the last two verses of the listed reading from the Letter to the Hebrews for yesterday, and the first verse of the one listed for today. But these three verses seem to go together and express a couple of ideas that seem particularly worth thinking about.
Like the apostle Paul, the anonymous author of Hebrews uses the metaphor of a sports competition to express spiritual points. This passage invites us to imagine ourselves running in a race, surrounded by a huge crowd of people who are cheering us on.
The text describes us as running our race of faith in the sight of “a great cloud of witnesses.” The author seems to intend us to understand that those witnesses are those who have finished their earthly lives in faith, and who now make up the population of the heavenly kingdom. I suppose you could have a debate about whether the author means to say that those in the heavenly kingdom are actually witnessing what we’re doing here on earth. But the real point, I would say, is that we should imagine ourselves being carried along in the race of faith by their encouragement, as athletes are lifted up by the roar of the crowd.
It’s what’s known as the “home-field advantage” in the world of sports, and it’s a very real and tangible effect – worth an average of 2.9 points per game in the NFL, according to the experts. People simply perform better when they feel the encouragement of the friendly crowd.
The author of Hebrews extends the sports metaphor a little further. He says that, just as an athlete takes off their warm-ups if they want to do their best in competition, we followers of Jesus need to “throw off anything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.”
That’s an appropriate metaphor, it seems to me. If we’re serious about serving God by following Jesus, if we’re serious about being governed by his teachings and living in imitation of him, there’s a good chance there are things we will need to give up. It might be our love of money or of material luxury and comfort. It might be our love of our cars, or our guns, or of our preoccupation with sports or games of chance, or partying. It might be our desire to be praised and admired by other people. It might be the right to take revenge against anyone who offends us in any way. All of those things are accepted – even admired – by lots of people in the world. But more to the point, all of those things are aspects of our natural human self-centeredness, and all of them could hinder us in trying to follow Jesus and glorify God.
And of course, there are outright sins, which we all understand can ‘so easily entangle’ us as we try to run the race of faith. It seems that lots of Christians think first of sexual sin when the subject of sin comes up, but lots of other sins also affect our ability to be effective disciples. Jesus seems to have talked more about greed than lust. And he also talked about sins like anger, refusal to forgive, gossip, jealousy, and the failure to love our neighbors. It seems clear that all of these sins and more can entangle us in the life of faith.
But the author of Hebrews offers us some pretty helpful advice in this passage on living the life of true discipleship. He says we should keep our eyes focused on Jesus as we run this “race marked out for us.” After all, slower runners are sometimes drawn along to their ‘personal best’ times by a superior runner who’s out in front of them. And even the best runners can improve their times by having someone running in front of them at the start of a race to help set a brisk pace.
It seems to me that one of the biggest mistakes that’s made by people who call themselves Christians is to take their eyes off the one who sets our pace – Jesus himself. Without question, it’s important for us to pay attention to what’s in the rest of the Bible. The Old Testament, the Letters of Peter and Paul and others – it’s all useful as we strive to grow in faith. But as we consider and apply the teachings we find in those other parts of the Bible – not to mention the traditions and teachings of the church – we always need to be reading those other teachings through the lens of Jesus himself.
If we do as this passage suggests, “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith,” we’ll run with strength and power. And in this case, the Greek word for perfect really means something closer to complete. We’ll obviously never really be ‘perfect’ in the common sense of that word, but as long as our eyes are fixed on Jesus, we’ll always know that we’re headed in the right direction. With the cheers of the faithful to encourage us and the leadership of Jesus ahead of us, we can run our race confident that our reward will be the joy that Jesus promised us on the last night of his earthly ministry – his joy.
Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for the examples and the encouragement of those who have gone before us in faith, and for the teaching and leadership of the Christ we follow. Strengthen us to focus our hearts and minds on him, and to run behind him with perseverance and joy. Amen.
Have a great weekend, and may you
Worship God joyfully on Sunday!
Henry
Recent Comments