Looking Up to Jesus

7/29/2019 Looking Up to Jesus

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Synod Reflection 2

Looking Up To JesusHebrews 12:1-3

1. Introduction Do not grow weary and lose heart

As many of you know I befriended Archbishop Stephen Thanof Yangon at the Lambeth Conference and have visited hisDiocese. Some of you were privileged to meet him when hevisited Canberra earlier this year. It was a deeply movingexperience for me to teach the Bible to his catechists andtheological students, who on the completion of their studieswill be deployed to places where they could be at highpersonal risk in a country where Christians are a minority andhuman rights have not always been respected. It was aprivilege to meet courageous Anglican Christians who aredetermined to remain faithful to Christ at all costs and run their

race with perseverance. This takes us to heart of our readingthis morning which concludes with an exhortation to not growweary or lose heart. After the magnificent chapter on faith, thewriter applies the lesson to his readers

1Therefore, s ince we are surrounded by so

great a cloud of w i tnesses, let us also lay

aside every weight and the sin that c l ings

so closely , and let us run wi th

perseverance the race that is set before us,2look ing to J esus the pioneer and perfecter

of our fa i th, who for the sake of the joy that

was set before him endured the cross,d isregarding i ts shame, and has taken his

seat at the r ight hand o f the throne of God .

3Consider him who endured such host i l i ty

against himsel f f rom sinners, so that you

may not gro w weary or lose heart .

The imagery of the race

Our writer is convinced that we are involved in a great raceand are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Themetaphor used is drawn from the ancient foot race. Thecompetitors would run in a stadium stripped to the skin andwould compete beneath the eyes of a vast crowd seated intiers like an enormous cloud round the track. The competitor

might look up to catch the eye of an Imperial Procurator (oreven the Caesar himself if he was present). So we Christians

run our race of faith encompassed by a great host ofunseen spirits who have already completed and finishedtheir race. This crowd includes the great list of men andwomen of faith recorded in Hebrews 11 who were sureof what they hoped for and certain of what they did notsee and for whom hope is now a reality in Christ (11:40).They had to wait, but they have to wait no longer. In

recent years they have been joined by members ofthis Diocese who have completed the course

marked out for them and passed the finishing linefull of faith and trust in God, having borne faithfulwitness to Jesus to the end.

But the main point of this text for us is the one imperative: run!(12:1). Everything else supports this, explains it or givesmotivation for it. Run the race set before you! Don't stroll,don't meander, dont coast, and dont wander about aimlessly.Run as in a race to the finishing line and with everythinghanging on it. These three verses then tell us how we must runand where we must look as we run this race of faith.

2. How To Run Our race requi res sel f-d isc ip l ine

In a foot race of any description, runners do not burdenthemselves with unnecessary clothing. They strip off the tracksuit and compete in the lightest clothing possible. Even if they


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do not compete stripped to the skin these days very little isoften left to the imagination! Moreover races require careful

thought to ensure there are no unnecessaryhandicaps. So it is with the race of faith. Ourwriter urges us to discard -

o every weight

These are probably things which are right in themselves but

hinder progress. These are weights or burdens which mustbe laid aside because they handicap us. In the context it refersto superfluous clothing, but from a spiritual point of view itcould be anything which inhibits our Christian growth, and itwill differ from person to person. For example, poor priorities

will impede spiritual advance. In a number ofCanberra congregations, where there are manyprofessionals, careers or work can be sometimes soconsuming that faith is weakened with little time forprayer and meditation or for regular meeting withGods people. Dont mishear me. Work is a good gift

of agracious God (just as are home, family,friendships, hobbies and sport) but unlesswe are clear about our priorities, thesegood things can slow us down spiritually.

o the sin that clings so closely

These are things which are essentially wrong in themselvesand which will inevitably trip us up. Many years ago I watchedone of our children competing in a school sports carnival. Hewas wearing one of those coloured sashes which slipped offhis shoulder, worked its way down his body and then aroundhis legs. It effectively hobbled him. Sin in any shape or form

will impede spiritual progress. If there is an unconfessedsecret sin it will dry up our fellowship with God. Butperhaps our writer has something special in mind whenhe writes the s in. There may be an emphasis on thedefinite article. Perhaps it is a reference to the great sinof unbelief which entangled a whole generation of Gods

people so that they spent 40 years wandering in thedesert (Hebrews 3-4). These people did not listen to Godor trust his words. Whether it is this sin or sins in

general, we should never treat themlightly. We need to ask God to softenour hearts as we examine ourselvesafresh. We need to confess our sins

and with Gods help forsake them. Our race requi res perseverance

Our race may be long or short (after all none of us know howlong we will live), but each of us needs exactly the samerunning style for the course God has marked out for us. Weare not asked to run in a spectacular fashion to make animpression on the spectators. We are simply exhorted to stickat it doggedly. One of the most memorable Olympic athletes of

the 1968 Mexico City Games was a marathon runnerfrom Tanzania. John Akhwari, who doesn't get a mentionin the record books because he came last. Half way

through the race he fell, badly cutting his knee anddislocating the joint. Most runners at that point wouldgive up. But after a few minutes he picked himself up,strapped up his leg and kept running. About an hourafter the winner had finished he hobbled across thefinish line to the cheers of the few spectators whoremained. When asked why he endured the pain and did

not retire from the race, Akhwariappeared perplexed at the question.Then he simply said, " I don' t th inkyou understand. My country did not

send m e 7,000 miles to start the race.

They sent m e 7,000 miles to finish it.

Likewise in the Christian race God wants us to persevere tothe end. We need that determination which steadily persistsand refuses to be deflected from the task at hand. Obstacleswill not daunt it. Delays will not depress it. Discouragements


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will not take its hope away. It will halt neither for pressuresfrom within nor opposition from without. It is a steadfastendurance which will carry on until in the end it gets there.

And the good news is that we do not have togenerate this quality by our own effort. The Bibletells us it part of the fruit of Gods Spirit grown inthe lives of those who follow and obey Jesus.

3. Where We Must Look The pr imary focus

Everything which would distract us or divert our attention fromspiritual growth needs to be put away and our eyes fixed onthe goal towards which we are pressing. There must beundivided attention. My experience of athletics is now thefading memory of school carnivals where I always seemed tohave plenty of other competitors to follow. However I believe inmarathon running it is a must to keep sight of the leadingbunch of runners. Our writer is of the opinion that we need to

keep our eyes on the front runner. We are not tokeep looking up into the grandstands all the time.Although the folk there will provide inspiration(and that is why I like reading Christianbiographies) the saints are not to be our primefocus. Nor are we to compare our performance

with other contemporary competitors.Remember Jesus post resurrection wordsto Peter in John 21 when he was comparinghis lot to that of John. Jesus gently butfirmly told him to concentrate on his own

running or following.We are therefore to fi xour eyes on the person of Jesus. ThisNIV translation has rightly and more clearly got the force of theverb. It describes the actions of one who is aware of rivalattractions, but deliberately looks away from those otherthings. We are to f ixour eyes on Jesus on whom faith depends

from start to finish. The use of the personal name Jesusshowsthe focus should be on his experience as a man, especially hispain, humiliation and the shame of the cross. Whereas thepeople of the Old Covenant had looked to a Christ imaged inprophecy, the readers of Hebrews could look to a Christ whohad come in the flesh in the person of Jesus. Notice thepowerful double description of him -

The double descr ip t ion of Jesuso The pioneer of faith

In the first place, Jesus is the pioneer of our fa i th. He is theone who blazed the trail of faith and ran the race to itstriumphant finish. 200 years ago in 1813 Blaxland, Wentworthand Lawson found a route over the Blue Mountains west ofSydney. This opened the way for others to follow. Jesus is

such a pathfinder. He is the one who shows usthe way and he is also the leader we follow. Infact our writers point is that he has alwaysbeen the one in front. For the people of the Old

Testament and for us he is the author orpioneer of faith. We today have the bestconcrete personal example to imitate in him.

o The perfecter of faith

In the second place, Jesus is the perfecter of our fa i th. He isnot only the initiator, but the one who brings it to completionas well. He brought it to completion or perfection on the cross.The whole of his life was marked by unquestioning trust in hisFather. In the garden before his death, he committed himself to

Gods purpose with the words not what I wi l l but yourwi l l be done. It was faith in Gods character and promise

which carried him through the desolate experience ofseparation from God on the cross as he endured thepenalty of our sin. In faith he cried My God, my God, whyhave you forsaken me?Then in trust he died saying in to

your hands I commit my spi r i t. He had hisheart set on returning to God and this


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enabled him to endure the cross,disregarding i ts shame(remember it was adisgraceful death reserved for the scum ofthe Roman Empire). He brought faith to

perfection by staying on thecross and God vindicated him.The text says he has taken his

seat at the r ight hand of thethrone of God.

But his joy is not just that he has arrived at this summit, butthat all his people who complete their course will enjoy it too.If we persevere and look to him he will leave his royal box andmeet us at the finishing tape to personally congratulate us andescort us to our place in glory. This means if we experience

open or even veiled hostility in our workplace orcommunity because we are single-mindedlyrunning the race of faith, then we know we have aSaviour who understands exactly how we feel. It

also means there is encouragement to persevere.When we feel weary or despondent, we need toget our particular trials into some perspective by acomparison with Jesus. He is the one we mustalways look to for guidance, leadership,encouragement and strength to reach the goal.

4. Conclusion Spir i tual reassessment

Birthdays are a time to take stock and not least our 150thcelebrations. This reading prompts spiritual re-assessment.

Whether we like it or not we are involved in a contest or a raceto be run. We each need to isolate the thing or things whichhinder ourfaith and with Gods help revise our priorities. We

need to re-examine our lives in the light of Godsword to discover those sins that trip us up. Weneed to confess them and with the help of Gods

Spirit forsake them. We need to focus completelyon Jesus our Saviour and Lord and press on tothe finishing tape with the same committed faithin the promises of God. May he enable us to dojust this. Amen

+Trevor Edw ards8

thSeptember 2013

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Looking Up to Jesus