It’s All About Jesus
Hebrews 12:1-3
A 12-year-old girl accidentally ran a half marathon after signing up for a family-friendly 5K run. Her name is LeeAdianez Rodríguez-Espada, and she’s a 12-year-old student from New York. Her mom dropped her off near the start and then went to park her car, but she was worried she was going to be late. So when she got to the starting line, she took off with everyone else and started running. Unfortunately for her, she was actually 15 minutes early and this was the start of the much longer half marathon, not the much shorter 5k she had signed up for. 13.1 miles instead of 3.1.
For a while, she was just focused on putting one foot in front of the other, and didn’t realize until mile four that the finish line was nowhere in sight. So she turned to another runner and asked how much further. “And that’s when it struck me I was in the half marathon instead of the 5k.” Instead of dropping out, she decided to keep running.
Her mom of course lost track of her when she went to park the car. When she got to the starting line, her daughter was gone. “She gave me a really big scare,” Espada told reporters. She and the police searched for Rodriguez for nearly two hours. 5k races usually take about 30 minutes for a typical, non-elite runner to finish. A half-marathon can take a couple of hours.
Her mom said, “She just wanted to finish the race. Two hours after I started looking for her, I see that one of the police officers found her. And I see she has a medal.” Unlike shorter races, every finisher in half marathons and marathons and other longer races gets a medal. She finished the 13.1 miles and placed 1,885th of 2,111 finishers but she was among the youngest to run the race. Her mom said, “I don’t even know how she did it. I’m so proud of her.”[i]
Can you imagine that? Signing up for a 5k and accidentally running a half marathon? Oh, to be young again! Do you remember those days? When your body could still cash the checks your brain wrote? When you could change plans mid-stream and just keep going. “Oh well, I’ve trained for 3.1 miles. But I’ll go ahead and run 13.” Sheesh.
The advent of the couch, recliner, and television have led to a rapid increase in people exercising. People are taking up walking, running, biking, and cross-country skiing. Why? Because we have to counteract the negative effects of binge-watching your favorite new show for three hours while eating nachos with cheese dip and drinking three sodas. But activities that test our physical, mental, and emotional endurance have always existed.
In fact, a long distance race is one of the New Testament writers’ favorite analogies for living life following Jesus. In 1 Corinthians 9, St. Paul says, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified” (1 Cor. 9:24-27).
Later, in 2 Timothy 4:7, as he neared the end of his life, he said, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” As we continue our journey through Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews uses the same analogy. Turn with me to Hebrews 12:1-3.
If you’ve ever been in a race of some kind, you know that when you come to the starting line, as the start time for your race approaches, the starter will lift their left arm and say “Runners ready!” They’re getting everyone’s attention, signaling that the race is about to begin.
Time to make sure you’ve shed your warm up suit if you’re wearing one and are ready to go. And time to start putting yourself more or less in the right spot in the pack. Elite runners right on the line, then the real, but not elite runners. Then everyone else. One last quick stretch, or some jumping up and down or jogging in place to get really loose.
Then the starter lifts his other arm, raising the starters pistol, and calls out “Runners set!” Now you take your starting stance. You’re ready to go. Eyes forward. Focused. And then the gun sounds and you’re off and running. This passage from Hebrews has a kind of ready, set, go rhythm to it. Look at V. 1.
This is the call “Runners ready!” And our coach, the loving pastor who wrote the sermon that is the New Testament book of Hebrews, wants us to pay attention to a couple of things. The first is the crowd that is watching us run, cheering us on. We’ve just walked through Hebrews 11, faith’s great hall of fame. Our pastor has brought our attention to those who have gone before us. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, and Rahab. Gideon and David and Samuel and the Old Testament prophets – people like Elijah and Elisha and Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and the others.
They weren’t extraordinary people. They were ordinary people who had an extraordinary faith in an even more extraordinary God. And they’ve run their race. They’ve experienced the exhaustion of the climbs up big hills, the scorching heat of the sun out in the open. They’ve run through lush valleys and across stony, barren places. They’ve tripped and fallen and in the power of the Holy Spirit, they’ve gotten back up again – knees and elbows and lips bloodied, and kept running until they finished.
Until they finished. Anyone can start a race. You don’t have to be in any kind of shape at all to start a race. It’s easy to sign up for a race. And anyone can step up to the finish line. But it takes training and grit to finish. That’s what was so impressive about that 12-year-old girl, who thought she was running a 5k, realized about that far in that she was actually in the half-marathon, a race four times as long, AND WENT ON TO FINISH ANYWAY.
They finished their race. And now the baton of life following Jesus in this contrary world has been passed to you, passed to me. And those who have gone before – those mentioned in Hebrews 11, and many others are gathered to watch you and I run our race in Christ and cheer us on.
Gregg, how would you feel if you got up here to lead worship and looked out there and saw Eddie Van Halen, Don Felder, B.B. King, and Jimi Hendrix sitting out there? Some of the great guitarists of the last half-century. Susan and Joy, how would you feel if you got up here and looked out and saw Amy Grant, Darlene Zschech and Lauren Daigle sitting out there? Some of the most prominent woman worship leaders and vocalists out there. It would be a little intimidating, wouldn’t it?
But the cloud of witnesses watching us and cheering us on as we run our race isn’t there to mock us, or shake their heads in disgust. No! They’re saying, “I finished my race, and you can too! Keep going!” They aren’t just in the dead past. They’re surrounding us and cheering us on. They’re there, saying “If I finished, you can too!” And one day, as you cross that finish line, Noah and Abraham and Sarah and Moses and Joseph and Joshua and Samuel and David and Isaiah, and Peter and Paul and Mary Magdalene and Martin Luther and John Calvin and John Wesley and Mother Teresa and Billy Graham will be there cheering, putting their hand out to give YOU a high five.
But they aren’t just witnesses OF us, our fans as we run. They’re witnesses TO us. As we encounter them in the pages of Scripture and of history, we see the grace and the goodness of God in their lives, God’s faithfulness when all seemed lost, God’s strength as they faced death at the hands of persecutors. Why is that important? So that we’ll KNOW that just as God was with them, God will be with us, no matter what kind of challenges we face. There will be some times in our lives that are confusing. When we wonder if we’ve gotten off course. Times when we are surprised. Things may surprise us, but nothing ever surprises God. And just as he was with them as than ran, he’ll be with you and I as we run too.
As the starter raises one arm and calls out “Runners ready!,” we notice the crowd. And we get ourselves ready. Now look at the last half of V. 1. We need to set two things aside … unnecessary weight that we might be tempted to carry, and sin that can entangle us and drag us down.
The unnecessary weight are things that might be innocent in themselves, but for me, with the race I am running in Christ and the things I need to be focusing on, they might be holding me back.
Great wealth and possession might be an unnecessary weight. There’s nothing inherently wrong or sinful about either. There’s nothing inherently sinful about having a boat or a vacation home or a really nice car. Nothing at all. But if I begin to hold too tightly too them, they can become an unnecessary weight that holds us back. If my wealth and possessions, holding on to what I have and getting more, becomes my goal instead of Jesus, I need to hold those things more loosely, and I might need to give some of it up for my own good.
Power and position can become one of those weights. Again, there’s nothing inherently wrong with being in a position of leadership. We need leaders and influencers in our world. But if climbing the ladder and getting recognition become my focus instead of Jesus – if I am willing to do anything get to the next rung of the ladder, regardless of the actions required of me to do it, then I need to hold more loosely to that.
And we all carry sin. As we run, we run battling sin, but we do not fight the battle on our own. As we run, the Holy Spirit works in us, not just strengthening us for the race but helping us to identify and root out the sin that lives deep inside of us. I can look at the lives of David and Samuel, Abraham and Sarah, Moses and Noah, and see the things that tripped them up so that I can be wary of them. And I consider my own heart and mind. I stop trying to convince myself that my own sin is “no big deal” and, receiving Christ’s forgiveness, I also cooperate with the Holy Spirit’s transforming work. Both are important.
Now, look at the end of V. 1. This is an endurance race, not a sprint. But it isn’t a half marathon, or a marathon, or even an ultra-marathon. It’s a life long race. It began when you first began to follow Jesus, and IF YOU FINISH, it will end when you cross the finish line of this physical life in death and enter the presence of God, to the high fives of that great cloud of witnesses – the women and men who ran and finished their races before us, who have handed the baton to us.
The starter has raised one arm and called out, “Runners ready!” The crowd is there to teach us and to cheer us on. We’re setting aside the unnecessary attachments and the sin that can hold us back. Yes, we’ll carry some of that sin with us until we cross the line, but we’re aware of sin’s presence and power and we’re cooperating with the Holy Spirit’s work as he transforms us even as we run. Now the second arm goes up, and the starter calls us “Runners set!” Look at V. 2.
Now we focus, and our eyes are on one person – Jesus. Jesus is the goal. Not prayer. Not Bible study. Not service. Jesus. Jesus is the goal. Oh we pray. But not for prayer’s sake. Prayer is how we talk to, and listen to, Jesus. We read and study and meditate on the Bible. But many throughout history have known the Bible forward and backward and missed Jesus.
After healing a man on the Sabbath, the Jewish teachers confronted him. These were the good, upstanding people of the community. They faithfully studies the Scriptures. The religious leaders had the entire Old Testament memorized. Word for word. They could recite it without error. They KNEW the Bible. But they missed Jesus. As they confront Jesus for breaking the Sabbath (instead of celebrating his healing miracle), Jesus says to them, “you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (Jn 5:38-40).
They knew the Scriptures forward and backward, but the one every passage pointed to was standing right in front of them and they missed it. Now, I’m not saying we shouldn’t study the Bible. We should. In fact, we must. But we have to give up our tendency to turn the Bible into either a self-help book designed to make us better people or a collection of passages we pull out to beat people up with. We need the Word of God not just in our minds but written on our hearts. We need it abiding deep within us so that God can use it to transform us. The goal isn’t just Bible knowledge. The goal is Jesus. Always Jesus.
He is the “founder and perfecter of our faith.” Now, faith clearly existed before the incarnation, before Jesus walked this earth. We’ve just walked through Hebrews 11 – all of the examples of extraordinary faith before Jesus lived. And Jesus didn’t just take something that was a little broken and fix it, perfect it. In the Greek language, perfect meant complete. When our pastor says that Jesus is the “founder and perfecter of our faith,” he is saying that Jesus is the beginning and the end of faith. He is the goal from start to finish.
Jesus said of himself “I am THE way” (Jn. 14:6). Not A way. THE way. Not A path. THE path. Following him isn’t ONE way to live. IT is THE way to life. He is the goal, and all that is needed in this life and the next lies completely within him. We pray and study to get to know him better. We worship to proclaim his glory. We serve because in serving, we are serving him. He is the goal.
But he is also the ultimate example of finishing the race. He “endured the cross, despising the shame.” He was completely innocent. Sinless. Righteous. He’d never felt sin. And he carried not just one sin. Not one act of rebellion against God. But every act of sin and rebellion to every exist in the heart of every human being who has ever lived.
If you’re used to being dirty, getting dirty is no big deal. I’ve mucked horse stalls more days than not for the past 20 years or so. It’s nothing for me to put on muck boots and walk across a muddy pasture. It’s nothing for me to stoop over and pick up a piece of horse poop that’s fallen out of the wheelbarrow. But getting dirty when you’ve never been dirty before is something else entirely. I can’t imagine the pain Jesus felt as the entirety of sin was placed on him, in his righteous heart. But he endured it. And he crossed the finished line and is now at the right hand of the Father in glory. Still bearing the scars, lest we ever forget just how much he loves us.
The starter has both hands raised. We’ve heard the calls, “Runners ready! Runners set!” And then we hear the bang, and the race is on. Look at V. 3. Most of us here have already been running for quite a while, so let me ask you, how’s it going?
Something happens in every endurance athlete during every race. It might be a thought. Or a twinge in a muscle or joint. But at some point, every endurance athlete asks themselves, “Why am I doing this? Why am I putting myself through this?” Halfway up that hill, or halfway across that hot stretch of desert road, you ask yourself, “Why am I doing this?” No one is chasing me. I’m just out here running. The word translated as “fainthearted” here means “to give up in your soul.”
Some endurance athletes stop because their bodies literally quit on them. They have no more electrolytes left in their body, so their muscles can’t contract. That isn’t what is being pictured here. What’s being pictured is the runner who loses hope. Who quits because they’re tired of running. Tired of the fight. Tired of the climb.
When that happens, and if you’re following Jesus, it will, look at the cross. Go back to what he endured. That’s why we take communion so regularly. To go back to the cross. To remember. To remember what he endured to make it possible for us to even be running, be following him. And then with gratitude in our hearts, we just keep going.
I ran track in high school. I’m not fast. At all. I’m really a distance athlete. But as a junior I mostly ran the 800 meter. Two laps around the track. Roughly a half mile. For elite runners, it’s considered a sprint. But for normal high schoolers it’s considered “middle distance.” As a junior, I was a middle distance runner. I should have been a distance runner, but I was stupid. Near the end of the season, during the conference championship track meet, I ran the 800 of my life. At the start, as the gun went off, I wound up right behind a runner who was just a little bit better than me, and I decided that come hell or high water, I was going to stick with him. And I did, for all but the last hundred meters.
That last hundred meters was the hardest 100 meters I’d ever run in my life. Typically, 100 meters isn’t much for a distance runner, but that hundred meters felt like 100,000. I think it’s the only time I ever really emptied my tank on the track. When I crossed the finish line, I was done. I just sat there. My time wasn’t spectacular even for elite high schoolers, but it was by far the best race I’d ever run. I wasn’t sure my legs were ever going to work right again.
But then the head coach, who was an elite distance runner, and one of the team captains, who also ran the 800, came over, and picked me up, and gave me a high five, and with huge grins said, “I’m so proud of you. You finished in the points. You contributed to the team win.” That one race got me my first varsity letter. This letter, on this jacket, right here. I can’t WEAR it anymore, but I still have it. Why? Because I ran the race of my life, and I finished.
Don’t just start. Finish! Finish the race. Run with endurance. Stay focused on Jesus. He’s the goal. Nothing else. Just Jesus. And when you finish, you won’t believe the hands of faith reaching out to give you a high five. But you won’t care, because he’ll be standing there, drawing you to him, saying “I’m so proud of you.” Let’s pray.
[i] Helena Horton, “12 Year Old Girl Accidentally Runs A Half-Marathon After Signing,” The Telegraph News (4-27-16); AnneClaire Stapleton, “Girl, 12, Accidentally Runs Half Marathon” CNN.com (4-27-16)
