Reading… and Thinking

The Greek word for witness is “martus”, from which we get our word martyr. It really doesn’t convey the idea of people who give their lives for a cause, the way we use martyr today. It means a witness in the sense of someone who is bearing witness, testifying. Not an onlooker. We are surrounded by this great multitude of saints from the past, who bear witness to us. Their lives of faith call out to us, encourage us to join them. They aren’t the spectators as we run the race – they are the coaches!

As they’ve shown us, we need to lay aside what weighs us down and entangles us, and run the race the way they did. What encumbers us? Possessions, conflicting loyalties, time-wasters. What entangles us? The writer tells us: it’s sin, which so easily gets wrapped around us and trips us up.

And another thing: a runner has to keep his or her eyes on the goal, the finish line. If they look down at their feet, they’ll fall. We’re told to fix our eyes on Jesus. Why? Because he’s already over the finish line. Where he is, is where we want to be.

This version and some others call him “author”, some others have “pioneer”. The word means “chief leader”, we might say the top dog. Or better in this context, the front runner. He is also the “perfecter”. He is the one who leads and who perfects faith. This version gets it right – “of faith”, not “of our faith”, the way some translations have it. There’s no “our” in the text. Those who think of Jesus as being God incarnate can’t imagine that Jesus himself had to have faith. But the Bible (and in particular the letter to the Hebrews) makes it clear that Jesus was made just like us – see for example Hebrews 2:14-18 and 4:14-16. Jesus had to go forward in faith, trusting his God to deliver him. He is the leader of faith. And he is the one who makes faith perfect – his own, and also ours.

The joy set before Jesus, the finish line that he fixed his eyes on, is the same joy that is set before us. Notice how Hebrews uses the concept of being “made perfect” – first Jesus (2:10, 5:9, 7:28), then at Christ’s return, all the faithful, including ourselves (11:40, 12:23) We can see that he has attained the finish line, and we have the promise that it will be ours as well. Jesus himself promises it: “He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my Father on His throne.” (Revelation 3:21)