Hebrews-Do Not Grow Weary

[1] Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, [2] looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

[3] Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. [4] In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.  Hebrews 12:1-4 ESV

Living a healthy lifestyle  is a topic that has lots of interest in our world today.  Each time the calendar changes, most people set a goal to be more healthy. Especially as we age, the pursuit of youth becomes a focus and being healthy is sold as one way to prolong life. 

Being a Christian, I know the days of my life are planned out by God as written in a book.  Psalm 139 describes this sovereign design in the length of my days as God’s decision “before they come to be.”  Knowing this scriptural truth,  I don’t have a false sense that anything I do can make my life longer or shorter.  Case in point, my grandparents lived very unhealthy yet both lived to an old age.  For me, I feel better when I try to eat well and love to exercise to destress and make me well enough to travel and hike—I don’t do it to control my lifespan yet I’d like to thrive physically in the days God does give me.  

Despite my best efforts, my body is aging and one of the ways this shows up is in the way that I exercise.  In my youth, I participated in competitive sports and would exercise to compete.  Now I work out so I don’t get injured doing everyday tasks like sleeping! Recently my husband tore his calf muscle getting out of the car.  My weekly habit is to lift weights and begrudgingly run twice a week.  I really jog as my running pace is barely faster than walking.  I have a running buddy and much prefer the days where I can meet up with her as we run the local lake trail together.  When I’m with her, my mind is focused and I forget that I’m doing something that now is much harder to do than it once was. 

The writer of Hebrews, which we remember is largely a recorded sermon to encourage Christians to stay with the faith, is honest in chapter 12 about how hard it is to keep going.  The group receiving his letter consisted of Jewish Christians who were persecuted in their culture and also alienated from their ethnic group in not following the judicial law.  It was getting hard to run the race, a metaphor for staying in faith.  Anyone who has been a Christian a long time knows how there are ups and downs in our desire to keep faith and that endurance is required to stay in submission to Jesus, as it is often a temptation to quit when things are challenging.  

To remember we are not alone in this tendency, chapter 12 starts by connecting  the great cloud of witnesses mentioned in chapter 11 in the great hall of faith—examples of people who didn’t receive what was promised by kept trusting in God.  The crowd that is there is not to watch you, but to serve as examples of race finishers, to be the example that you can also finish strong.  To extend his point, the writer of Hebrews then builds up on examples of chapter 11 to outline four ways that you can finish strong.  

-v 1 Lay aside every weight and sin 

As we have the cloud of witnesses, the hero’s of faith mentioned in the previous chapter, we can do what they did—come to the end still trusting God.  Since the life of faith is about going the distance, we need to maximize our spiritual life to maintain endurance.  Verse one of chapter 12 describes this process of unfettered striving after God as the need to lay aside every weight.  One weight mentioned in verse one is the burden placed on the believer by sin.  The author tells the Christian to throw off the sin that entices us to slow us down and stop running.

We must throw it off with intention because sin clings closely.  My husband and I make pizza every Sunday and relax with a movie to gear up for the week ahead.  My recipe makes four crusts, so for two of us, I can bake once for two weeks.  To save what we aren’t using, I wrap my crusts in cling wrap.  Because they are so big, I often use multiple sheets to cover all the dough to avoid freezer burn when I store it.  My husband hates taking off his wrap because he can’t see the layers and where to even begin peeling it off.  Sin is like that.  We sometimes can’t see our sin or even where to begin the process of removing it.  

A scene from a favorite series, the Chronicles of Narnia comes to mind.  In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, a boy named Eustace gets swept to the magical land of Narnia with his cousins.  In general he is a disliked character and all the boat hands on their vessel avoid with with his constantly complaining.  At the beginning of the novel, thinking he he soon be rescued, he cites his grievances is in a notebook about how the crew is treating him.  He is also greedy.  While exploring islands on their quest, the group is marooned on an island with gold and Eustace steals from a dragon and in a magical sleep discovers upon waking that he has become one.  The lion, an allegory for Jesus in the series, is the only one who can free him from his changed state.  In this excerpt, he describes what it is like to have Jesus take away sin.  

“Then the lion said — but I don’t know if it spoke — You will have to let me undress you. I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it.

“The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was jut the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off.  You know — if you’ve ever picked the scab of a sore place.  It hurts like billy-oh but it is such fun to see it coming away.”

“I know exactly what you mean,” said Edmund.

“Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off – just as I thought I’d done it myself the other three times, only they hadn’t hurt – and there it was lying on the grass, only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was I smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me – I didn’t like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I’d no skin on — and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I’d turned into a boy again. . . .”  

A helpful place to start peeling off our layers is being connected with Christin community.  When there are people in your life who love you and accept you in your journey, it is safe to hear the areas attached to us we may not see.  James 5:16 instructs us to confess our sins to one another, receive prayer and healing follows.  Since sin is heavy and clings, we can bear with one another in the removal process.

v. 2 Looking to Jesus

The Christian race requires endurance and to run well, we must let Jesus remove our sin.  As the excerpt from Narnia above illustrates, only He can remove it. We not only have the heroes of faith to look to as we endure, we have the ultimate example in Christ. To endure and not grow weary, we must have our eyes locked on Jesus as we run. What you look at is what where you will go.  I remember my dad giving me this navigational advise  when I first learned to drive.  He said if you are ever on the road and your car loses control, don’t look at something you want to avoid hitting, like a power pole, or you will put your car there.  If we want to endure faithfully, we need to stare unwavering at the one who was always faithful-Christ.  

This Jesus, who founds our faith by removing our sin, also perfects it.  Looking at His life, we can emulate his same qualities to help us endure.  One of the things Jesus did to endure was look to joy.  Verse 2 says “for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”  Jesus got through an unjust murder sentence at the hands of sinful men because of joy.  He saw the outcome of His humility and what would come if He willingly gave of Himself to the point of death.  He would be seated at the right hand of God, the place of power and honor.  

Not only does Jesus look past the cross to His rightful place, but He takes joy in saving His people.  Isaiah 53:11  says, “Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant make many to accounted righteous and he shall bear their iniquities.” What satisfied the soul of Christ was making us righteous, giving believers a way to be reconciled to God, to be in relationship.  He underscores this fact in the telling of the lost sheep in Luke 15 and Mathew 18.  When one person is reunited by God, joy and celebrations erupt in heaven.  

We too can look past our suffering and see the place where we are going.  Jesus in John chapter 17 reminds us that He is going to prepare a place for us, where we can be free from sin, death, and sadness (Revelation 22).  Our eternal home will be a place of heavenly light sourced by the presence of God without separation.  We will be joined with God and all the faithful saints that have gone before us, the remade and perfected dwelling come from heaven to earth.  When we look past our earthly trials, that joy awaits us.  Romans 9:18 says that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.  A body made perfect, rich community, free from sin in a changed nature in the presence of God without end.  Amen!  Let it be so! That truth has helped me endure suffering, pain and disappointment and the grief of losing those I love, knowing I will see them again someday in a perfect state.  

-v. 7 It Is for discipline that you have to endure.  God is treating you as sons. 

Another way to endure the race of faith is rightly view our relationship with God and understand that like a parent corrects a child, faith is being changed by a loving Father.  As we struggle against our sin, experiencing the Lord’s redirection is a way to validate we are truly His, adopted with permanence into His family.  

The author shares the analogy of our experience with an earthly father.  Though they did what seemed best to them, and didn’t always get it right, God the Father always disciplines his children for our good.  His correction leads to the peaceable fruit of righteousness.  It requires training, and like the guidance we receive from our human dads, it is not pleasant but painful.  We can’t expect our faith to always feel good.  God loved us while we are still sinners (Romans 5:8) and loves us enough to not leave us that way.  

This process is called sanctification and verse 9 reminds us this painful process leads to life.  When I think about my own times of discipline from the Lord, it had to do with submission to HIs ways over my desires.  At times this looked like seeing right from wrong His way, giving things up that I wanted, and obeying His will over my feelings.  Being disciplined can also meet confessing my sin, asking forgiveness, admitting I needed help, or avoiding things that I knew would tempt me.  In my growth, I found wisdom from meeting with older saints for advice and support who had learned their own lessons from Jesus.  I’ve found the more I accept and am “subject to the Father of spirits” the more I grow and am changed.

V 28 Let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe

Ultimately, sticking with faith comes down to a right view of God.  Do you see God as an option among many to choose to lean on, or do you see Him as head of a kingdom unshakable-of blazing fire, darkness, gloom and tempest.  When the Israelites received the law, even Moses, God’s chosen prophet to lead His people, shook with fear.  Loving God means seeing Him who He is with every aspect of His being.  The end of this chapter describes God as powerful, holy, a consuming fire  the judge of all with a voice that shakes the earth.  

This is the same God who died for us and disciplines us for our good, to show we are part of His family.  This God is worthy of worship.  Seeing God rightly and humbling ourselves before Him will help us keep our faith till the end.  

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