Hebrews 12:1-3
After describing the struggles, the triumphs, and especially the enduring faith of many saints of God from the days of the Old Testament, the author of the Letter to the Hebrews, at the beginning of chapter 12 of that epistle, gives us this encouragement:
“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
So far our text.
The ancient Greeks used to compete with each other in running races and athletic contests, in honor of the gods whom they thought lived on Mount Olympus. This is where the modern term “Olympics” comes from.
When the Romans came on the scene as the dominant political power in the Mediterranean world, and absorbed the Greeks into their new empire, they picked up on this Greek athletic tradition, and perpetuated it.
These kinds of competitions – which were common in the Roman world – were the inspiration for the racing analogy that today’s text from the Epistle to the Hebrews presents to us, as an illustration of the meaning and character of Christian faith.
We usually think of faith as something passive. In relation to God and his Word, faith doesn’t really do anything, but it trusts in what God does for our salvation.
In this sense faith simply receives what God offers, as our soul rests in God’s grace, and is reconciled to God through the mediation of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. As St. Paul writes in the Epistle to the Romans,
“To the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.”
This is all true. But this does not exhaust all the Biblical imagery regarding faith, and what faith is like. The Lutheran theologian Martin Chemnitz observes that
“There is the further question concerning the exercises of faith under the cross, in obedience, in prayer, and the expectation of bodily and spiritual blessings, when the person is reconciled by faith. In regard to this question the Epistle to the Hebrews discusses how faith, after justification, exercises itself through suffering, and receives various gifts and benefits.”
That’s what the text from Hebrews is talking about when it compares faith – and the exercise of faith in the life of a Christian – to the running of a race. In this sense, faith is active, always in motion, always striving toward its object and goal.
In faith we actively reach out to Christ, and actively grasp him. “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus,” we are told.
And just as the Epistle to the Hebrews exposes us here to another aspect of the Biblical doctrine of faith, so too does it also expose us to another aspect of the Biblical doctrine of sin. We are given this admonition:
“Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…”
Usually we think of sin in terms of humanity’s inner corruption, which inclines us away from God; and in terms of humanity’s rebellion against God and his law, which invites God’s wrath and judgment.
Again, this is all true. But this also does not exhaust all the Biblical imagery regarding sin and how sin hurts us.
Sin paralyzes us spiritually. It is like a ball and chain that weigh us down and bind us up, making us spiritually immobile.
It is that aspect of sin that the Epistle to the Hebrews is addressing when it calls upon us to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us,” so that we can run the race of faith.
In a literal race, a smart runner will take off anything he doesn’t absolutely need to be wearing before he begins his race. I’ve heard of racers shaving down the rubber on the side of the soles of their running shoes, to minimize the weight.
Runners will also make sure that their clothing is not clingy or restrictive. They will wear only as much as they need to, and none of it will be tight-fitting. Everything that would limit the movement of their arms or legs in any way, is laid aside.
That’s the way it has to be with us as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith, if they are real, always go together. If a desire to embrace the forgiver of sins is genuine, it will be accompanied by a corresponding desire to lay aside the sin, which would prevent us from being able to run the race of faith if it were not laid aside.
You cannot run the race of faith if you have not, in repentance, “laid aside” all deliberate, evil intentions, and turned away from all intentional, wicked actions. If these remain with you, and on you, they will weigh you down, and prevent you from moving in God’s direction.
You cannot run the race of faith if your mind is bound up with a straightjacket of greed or lust, or if your soul is hobbled with the restraints of hatred or pride. If you willfully cling to your sins, and allow them to cling to you, you cannot at the same time cling to Christ.
The kind of repentance that God demands is not simply a matter of saying you are sorry. It is a matter of being sorry – for what you have done that you should not have done, and for what you have not done that you should have done.
And, if you are sorry for your sins, you will hate your sins. And with the Lord’s help, and in his strength, you will want to lay them aside, and to cast them as far away from you as possible. Therefore,
“Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Jesus is here called the “founder and finisher of our faith.” But the Greek term that is rendered by our version as “founder” might better be rendered as “beginner.”
A variant of that Greek term also appears in John chapter 1, where we read: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
And so, in the context of his racing analogy, Jesus is described by the writer of Hebrews as the beginner and finisher of the race that is our faith.
This race of faith is, as it were, taking place on an oval track, or on a circular course, where the start line, and the finish line, are the same line. In a literal race on such a track or course, the runners set out on their race at the same location where they eventually end up.
And in our Christian faith it’s very similar to this. Jesus is the one who gets us started in our life of faith, and he is also the goal toward which our faith is pressing.
Unlike the start and finish line on a literal race track, however, Jesus is not just an inanimate scratch in the dirt, or a splash of paint on the pavement. Instead, he is very much alive, and is the giver of the spiritual life that both pushes and pulls us forward in our life of faith.
At the beginning of our race, in our baptism, Jesus launches us out into a life of trusting discipleship. And from the finish line, in his resurrected glory, Jesus beckons and draws us in hope, to everlasting life.
And along the way, as we are going around the track or the course of our race of faith, whenever we falter, or stumble, or start to feel worn out – wondering if we will finish the race – Jesus rejuvenates us by his word of gracious pardon, and refreshes us by the divine sustenance of his Holy Supper.
You and I cannot even begin to run this race in our own strength, by virtue of our own human religiosity, let alone to finish it by our own spiritual power. But Jesus has made it possible for us to have faith, and to be saved by faith.
For the joy of the resurrection that was set before him – in the race of redemption that he ran for us – Christ endured the shameful death of the cross. Our sins needed to be atoned for by a perfect divine-human Savior.
Only Jesus could accomplish this for us. And in love for the whole human race, Jesus did accomplish this. But that was not the end of his race. The resurrection was the end. The resurrection was the victory.
And now, as the crucified and risen Savior, Jesus continually puts us in training for our race: with the healthy spiritual diet of his means of grace, and with the regular discipline of exercising our faith in prayer.
Jesus bestows upon us his limitless grace and forgiveness: whenever we do slip from the track into sin, and call out to him in humility for the healing and help that only he can give.
And he, as it were, injects into each of us, by his Word and Spirit, all the supernatural strength we need to run this race: to stay on our feet, to press forward, to persevere without giving up. All of that comes from Jesus.
In St. John’s Gospel he says, “without Me you can do nothing.” In St. Matthew’s Gospel he also says, “With God all things are possible.”
With Christ sustaining us every step of the way, we are able to do what we would otherwise never be able to do. We repent of our sins and believe his gospel. Every day, we repent and believe.
And we live in that faith, as we run the race that has been set before us: energized by the grace of our baptism into Christ, and encouraged onward by the promise of the resurrection victory that will be ours, through the victory over sin and death that Jesus has already won for all his saints.
Today’s confirmand Norah has been running her race of faith since the day of her baptism. But in her confirmation, as she confesses publicly her faith in Christ, she is turning an important corner on the track on which she has been running.
And today, in the sacrament of Christ’s body and blood, she will begin to receive an extraordinarily potent source of energy that Jesus gives her, to strengthen her for endurance and persistence in the race she is running.
Norah does not think – and no one should ever think – that confirmation and first communion are the end of something. They are not the finish line. They are a rejuvenation that points us to the future, and are a new beginning in our relationship with Christ and with his church.
Those who are in these ways renewed in their faith, look forward in faith to a lifetime of running, and of believing. Norah, today, is looking forward in faith, to a lifetime of running, and of believing.
We close with one of the most uplifting passages in all of Scripture, from today’s appointed lesson from the Prophet Isaiah, which seems especially fitting for what we have been considering:
“The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” Amen.