Psalm35│Jeremiah 22.1–5, 13–19│Hebrews 11.32–12.2│John 11.45–57
Psaumes 35|Jérémie 22.1-5,13-19|Hébreux 11.32-12.2|Jean 11.45-57
Pilgrims on the trail
Once while hiking in the mountains I came across
some sweaters draped over a tree right by
the side of the path. Perhaps the owners had overheated and needed to
discard some of their clothing lest they be slowed down.
'The Pilgrim of the World at the End of His Journey' by Thomas Cole, 1801-1848, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
That little episode illuminates one of the verses in our text today from the
Letter to the Hebrews: 12.1 ‘Therefore, let us also lay aside every weight
and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race
that is set before us.’ Those words were written to encourage followers of the
Way of Jesus who were struggling in the face of trials and persecutions, some
of which the writer lists here in gory detail. (‘They were stoned to death;
they were sawn in two’ – Yikes!).
Of course, the challenges which we confront day
by day are far less spectacular. But our struggles to live faithfully
make the same underlying demand upon us. We are called to ‘run with
perseverance’, and that can require from us all the spiritual strength we can
muster, giving all that we have to the effort.
And sometimes all that we have is actually too much. Like the hiker on the
trail, we can be carrying burdens that are weighing us down: anxieties that sap
our courage, ambitions that are unrealistic; defensiveness that closes us off
from other people; and so on
How then shall we be enabled to persevere? Our text urges us to look to Jesus, 12.2
‘…the pioneer and perfecter of our faith…’. ‘Pioneer’ could also be
translated as ‘the forerunner’. Jesus,
the forerunner of all of us pilgrims on the trail, shows us the way into the
grace of God.
Rod
Sykes
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