The race is long, and it is hard. Do your knees ache? Is the sweat stinging your eyes? Are you thinking of shrinking back?
The writer of Hebrews is like a good coach who says to the runner, “There is strength for the laps you have left. Your faintheartedness does not seal your fate.” How does the writer aim to spur on his readers who are facing suffering and trials and the temptation to quit striving? He points them to Jesus: “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted” (Heb 12:3).
Somehow, considering Jesus in this way will strengthen them. Considering Jesus will help them to endure. Considering Jesus is their remedy for faintheartedness.
The readers’ heart exhaustion is detectable, so the writer makes his goal plain: that they keep going, all the way to the end. He discerns the effect that hardship can have. If the cost to follow Christ seems overwhelming, the readers may not want to take much more. Lest they fall away, he says, “Look at Jesus. He endured the cross. He bore its shame. He faced the hostility from his enemies.”
To point them to the cross is to point them to the center of the Gospel. The Gospel is for the weary and fainthearted. Jesus is the forerunner who endured the race marked out for him, a race that led to a rugged cross. The writer wants his readers—you!—to run but to run while looking to Jesus (Heb 12:2). We are too weak for the race, but Jesus is not. He is enthroned at the right hand of the Father, he sympathizes with our weakness, and he has help and grace to give in our time of need.
If our strength is Christ and the glorious news that proclaims him, then we must “consider him who endured . . . such hostility” (Heb 12:3), lest weariness derail us. And we should be honest with ourselves and with the body of Christ when faintheartedness rises within. Ask for prayer, meditate on the Gospel, drench your soul in the Word, bask in the fellowship of the saints, subject your mind and heart to the preaching of the Bible.
The weary need the Gospel that they might hold fast to the trustworthy message of the One who is their anchor. The race is long, but it is the way to glory. It leads to the City. It culminates in all-things-become-new. As Eugene Peterson aptly titled one of his books, Christian discipleship is A Long Obedience in the Same Direction.
As you run, you will notice footprints along the way. This direction is one which Abel, Enoch, and Noah traveled (Heb 11:4-7). Abraham and Sarah walked it (11:8-19). It was the route Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph took (11:20-22). Moses and Rahab preferred it, no matter the cost (11:23-31). Countless others staked their lives on this promised road, leaving their example of faith and devotion (11:32-40). Their stories are their footprints. Their lives comprise a cloud, and you are surrounded by it.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses . . . let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Heb 12:1). You will need strength to endure. You will need an anchor for your weary soul. You will need to consider Jesus. You will need the Gospel.
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