The Jewish readers living in Rome would have quickly recognized the imagery of athletic competition. When competing before a home crowd, most athletes perform better. Having just reviewed the legends of faith from Israeli history, the writer speaks of them as spectators in the stands. Let them see you do well! The event is living by faith. It requires setting aside this world and all its cares, stripping down the bare essentials of walking by The Spirit. All the more must they commit for the long haul, since this is an endurance event.
The finish line is coming face to face with Jesus Christ. Don't get lost in the details of the race conditions, but keep your eyes on the point of it all: Jesus incarnated in us. He raced with gusto, enjoying His life because He didn't get tangled up things which didn't matter. Having in His path the Cross hardly slowed Him. That it was all so shameful from a human perspective was of no concern. His own finish line was taking His place at the Father's right hand, the place held by the Executive Officer, the one who exercised the ruler's power. As with many retired champions, He is now the referee of participants. How did He win? You must emulate His style in facing sin, or you will fail. He allowed nothing to dissuade Him from His course of obedience.
The Jewish Christians in Rome had not yet faced significant violence, it seems. They mistook social and economic pressures for real persecution. The writer reminds them they had hardly paid in blood for following Christ. The reason was because they weren't trying hard enough. Not in the sense of provoking needless bloodshed, but paying no heed to that price in the drive to obey His teaching and follow His example. If they were to be crucified, it's only just they suffer for their very real sins what Christ suffered for none of His own. Don't look upon the hatred of sinners as injustice. Look upon it as the switch hand of the Father, removing from them sinful habits (Proverbs 3:11-12). If you aren't suffering with Christ, how can you claim to be a fellow heir of the Son? We would consider it scandalous if any man failed to spank his children for misbehavior. Yet in our hearts we know human parents often err in their discipline, simply doing the best they know. God Our Father never errs in correcting His children.
Only madmen enjoy pain. We don't go out of our way looking for misery; there's nothing virtuous in suffering itself. When our pain reflects the efforts of God to refine our conduct, to make us more like Jesus, we should celebrate His loving care! It makes us stronger, able to negotiate the obstacles of sin in our path. So don't go looking for trouble; it will find you soon enough. Do your best to be loving and peaceful with all people. You don't have to be confrontational to make it clear what sin is. Set your eyes on Heaven; become other-worldly about this awful world. Don't use the inevitability of sinful people around you as an excuse to bog your life down with their sins. Would you rather end up like Esau? Jews typically spat at the mention of his name. He tossed away his eternal spiritual inheritance in exchange for a single meal. Nothing he did could revoke that choice.
This is not like the Exodus, camping at the foot of Mount Sinai. We aren't called to follow precise rules of conduct, for which failing means execution. Nor does the revelation of God's will come to us in voices we cannot bear to hear, or in terms demanding too much of us. No, we live in the shadow of Mount Zion, the real Zion in Heaven. We are called to keep our eyes on the Spirit Realm, the only thing which matters. Angels are there to strengthen us, and that crowd of faithful souls which went before us, all sharing in one spiritual existence, as our feet remain rooted here in this fallen world. Jesus is there, with His Blood sacrifice having made us fit to stand there in our spirits. If the blood of Abel cried out to God from the earth, witnessing to a great sin, how much louder and more insistent is the voice of Jesus' Blood crying out for our redemption, for mercy and grace?
If the Law of Moses could take your temporal life, do you not see how the Law of Christ could take your eternal soul? That same Blood of Jesus cries out your name, calling you to remain faithful to the Covenant of Christ. We know the voice of God shook the earth at Mount Sinai, but He has promised He will shake it just one more time. Quoting a Messianic Promise from Haggai 2:6, our writer warns this latter shaking will shake all the earth, and Heaven, too. Haggai's point was to show the latter shaking would be a clear departure from the previous. Not simply shaking to get our attention, but shaking to remove anything which cannot stand before God Almighty. Fallen Creation cannot bear the presence of a holy God, and He withdrew a distance by sending mere symbols of His divine presence. In His real presence in Heaven, we must leave behind anything which can be shaken, and only what is eternal will go there. If your composure is so easily shaken, it is founded on the wrong thing. Build your life on the grace of God, not something which was designed for mere temporary use, as was the Covenant of Moses.
The Kingdom of Heaven is built in purity, holy from the start. If you are part of that, there is nothing left of Moses to which you can return. All of that will burn up in the fire of God's wrath. If that is where you heart is, you will be consumed, as well. The fire of God purifies, and the persecution faced by Jewish Christians in Rome was designed to pull them farther away from Moses, farther into Christ. If they turn back now, Christ was no part of them in the first place.
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Ed Hurst
02 May 2008
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