“We Are All Witnesses”
Hebrew 12:1-3
Associate Pastor Doug Forsberg
May 28, 2006
When you root for sports teams based in Cleveland, Ohio, you quickly learn that low expectations and pessimism are essential for survival. Other sports towns have trophy cases lined with mementoes of big games won. Cleveland, on the other hand, has learned to name its most devastating defeats: Red Right 88, The Drive, The Fumble, “The why didn’t Jose Mesa throw his fastball?”.
But things are different now because we have “The King.” The King is Lebron James, a 21 year old professional basketball player with a gift for shooting a round ball through a round hoop. Lebron is special. He so special that Nike has painted an advertisement on the side of a building next to the arena in Cleveland that is 60 feet high and long. In the ad, Lebron is floating through the air toward the basketball hoop and the words, “We Are All Witnesses,” written below him in the ad, proclaim The King’s greatness. Imagine 20,000 people gathered together in an arena to witness basketball greatness. Their eyes are focused on The King, the one man who can bring glory to a city that is accustomed to defeat and shame.
Believe it or not Hebrews 12:1-3 is full of images taken from the ancient sporting world. The phrase “cloud of witnesses” appears only once in scripture but it is found in other ancient writings and it always refers to spectators who have come to watch a sporting event.[1] The instruction to get rid of that which hinders us is rooted in the idea of an athlete preparing his or her body and wearing the right uniform so as to compete with the best chance of winning. Clearly, the text also indicates that our life of faith is a race in which we are all participating.
The writer of Hebrews builds on this reference to a race to focus our attention on the fact that all those who follow Jesus share an important character trait with him, and that trait is endurance. When we look at Hebrews 12:1-3, we find that the word endurance is repeated three times. Let’s take a few minutes this morning to look at how the writer of Hebrews is calling us to endure, understanding that we are exhorted to endure so that we won’t grow weary or become fainthearted as we seek to live faithful lives.
In the movie Chariots of Fire, the main character, Eric Liddell, an Olympic runner, reveals that when he runs, he feels God’s pleasure. When you think about it, this is a remarkable thing to say. Training to run races involves pushing your body to its limits. It involves building muscle mass and getting rid of fat. It involves training your mind to see past the pain you are experiencing, knowing that such pain actually allows you to run faster in the end.
Verse one of chapter 12 tells us “to run with endurance the race set before us.” This verse also reminds us of that great cloud of witnesses who surround us in this race. This great cloud is made up of a vast multitude who have finished the race. We find some of these faithful ones listed in the Bible Hall of Fame found in Hebrews 11: people like Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David. These faithful ones struggled through the joys and defeats that life presented, knowing that God’s promises were true. They did not give up, but in faith, looked forward to the fulfillment of God’s promises in Christ.
They did not see Christ, but we who live after Christ, see him through the witness of the New Testament. We look into the past and see the goodness of God’s promises fulfilled for us, yet we still have a race to run. We run this race to continue on in the faith because of the fact that we live in a fallen world beset by untold trials.
The writer of Hebrews knows this and implores us to throw off every impediment and the sin that clings so closely to us. If you were going to run the Boston Marathon, you wouldn’t wear snow pants, a ski jacket, and ski boots to the starting line. Such apparel would be a burden to you and make it next to impossible to finish the race. In the same way, as we run this race of faith, we are instructed to lay aside all that entangles so that we can run in a manner that allows us to feel God’s pleasure.
Of course, a funny thing happens to those running this race. It doesn’t take long to realize that we aren’t able to lay aside everything that entangles. Instead, as we try to do so, we find ourselves focused inwardly, wondering why we can’t be more faithful, wondering why our worst moments haunt us. If this continues even for a short period of time, we start to slow down in the race. Our pace slacks off and eventually we stop dead in our tracks unable to make any progress.
It is for this reason that we are told to fix our eyes on Jesus, the one who has made faith possible. When we focus our eyes on Jesus, not letting our attention waver, we are freed to run the race unencumbered. We look to Jesus because he knows how to run the race faithfully: He humbled himself and became a man, he followed his Father obediently, he endured the cross and now he sits at the right hand of God. Recall that Jesus walked obediently into Jerusalem and never wavered from his mission. At any moment angels could have been called upon to save Jesus, but he never called them.
Imagine the weight of the cross on his back and the pain of the nails driven into his body. In Jesus’ day there was no worse shame than to be hung on a tree, yet that is where we find the Son of God, and on that cross he took all of the sin that clings so closely to us and conquered it. Jesus defeated sin and death; he endured the penalty of our waywardness so that we might run with endurance in God’s good pleasure. In the end, we can never totally untangle ourselves from sin, but Jesus does. He sets aside every weight and the sin that clings to us.
I wonder what weight entangles you and hinders you from running a good race? What part of your life do you keep from Jesus, thinking that if he knew the truth, he’d let you fall flat on your face? Dear friends, Jesus knows the truth about you, and he endured your shame and mine on the cross, and now he sits at God’s right hand as our advocate, and before God the Father, he claims as his own all those who come to him in faith.
You are Christ’s. He has redeemed you and bought you with a price, and he will never deny you. Take your eyes off of the sin that clings so closely to you and fix them on Jesus, for when your eyes are on him, you will know the pleasure of running this race.
That doesn’t mean that its easy to run or that there aren’t obstacles and opposition in our paths. Indeed, when we run like Jesus ran, we are sure to encounter obstacles. Verse 3 begins with a command: “Closely consider Jesus.” We are commanded to look at Jesus’ life so that we won’t be discouraged. What are we to look at in Jesus life? Specifically, we are instructed to look at the hostility he faced from sinners. When we think of Jesus’ ministry, we can’t help but see that he was dogged by doubters and provoked by the privileged. His ministry could hardly get off the ground without conflict.
In our families, in school or on the job, there are ways in which we too might face conflicts caused by our faith in Jesus. We do not live a Christian society, and to tell you the truth, this is a good thing, for we are now forced to run not because everyone else is, but because we as individuals believe that Jesus is the Son of God. When we experience hostility because of Jesus’ lordship over our lives, we stand in good company: we stand with Christ. Of course, you may experience hostility from other enemies. Perhaps your health or the health of one you love is failing. Perhaps your dreams have been dashed. Perhaps death has taken one so very close to you. Perhaps you feel abandoned and unable to run this race alone.
If this is where you find yourself, consider Jesus. Remember the obstacles put in his path by his enemies, remember the hardships he faced. Remembering won’t make your hardships go away or make your enemies retreat, but it will force you to take note of Jesus’ endurance, and when you see his endurance, an endurance born out of love for you, you will have hope in the midst of your trials, and with hope you will not grow weary or lose heart.
Sisters and brothers think of all those who have gone before us in the faith who have kept their eyes fixed on Jesus. Think of those who have filled these pews for over 100 years giving witness to the transforming power of Christ in their lives. Think of all those you’ve known who now know the fulfillment of God’s promises. Their number cannot be counted. They are a great cloud of witnesses who have run the race and kept the faith. Their circumstances might have been different than ours, but the race they were called to run was no different. They faced the same challenges as we do, and as they kept their eyes on Jesus, they ran with endurance just as Christ had done.
We are all witnesses. We are witnesses of God’s great promises fulfilled in Jesus.
Friends, run with endurance,
For you are in the arena of the faithful.
Fix your eyes on Jesus so that you won’t grow weary or fainthearted.
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.