I've written up my lesson from today. Here's the whole thing, with an ending I didn't get to. And since it got a bit rushed at the most tricky part (how to interpret "hardship" as "discipline"), I'd really appreciate it if we could discuss this more on here. Are there any parts of my assessment that generate further questions, disagreements, yes... buts, or rejoinders?1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Cloud was a common metaphor for a crowd in the Greco-Roman world. Who are these witnesses? Those who have gone before us with faith in Jesus, throughout the storyline of the Scriptures (highlighted in the previous chapter of Hebrews)
Though this verse may simply mean that we should be inspired by their example, I prefer to read this more literally as indicating that they are watching us, in the presence of God. Had the author merely wanted us to be inspired, he could have said, “witness” to the faith of these saints, but instead, he has them being the witnesses of our lives. And I don’t see why this can’t be true, considering they are now in the presence of the Lord (yes, I’m expected some hemming and hawing from Chris and Robin on this).
The race metaphor is a great one, used elsewhere in Scripture by Paul* (1 Cor. 9:24-17, Phil. 3:14, Col. 3:18). Having just participated in my first adult race (Shamrock run) I have a somewhat better picture of this in my head- the excitement of the crowd and of the finish line, etc..
Interestingly, the word for race is the Greek “agon”. Sound familiar? It’s the root for our word “agony”
Tells you something about how agony and ecstasy are combined, huh?
2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Apparently verse 2 mirrors a passage from the intertestimental book 4th Macabees, which has a passage of a martyr looking to God while enduring torment. If this is intentional, the author of Hebrews is making a powerful statement of Jesus’ divinity, using his name interchangeably with God.
“Author of our faith”. What a great description of Jesus. If He is the author, then what does that imply about our faith? It is a story- and it must be an adventure story similar to those in Hebrews 11. There we saw a bunch of “by faith Abraham” did so and so or “by faith Moses” did ____________________ statements. You might want to put your name in the sentence (“by faith Josh _________________________”) and see what kind of story Jesus has been writing in your own life.
“Perfector” or “finisher”, that’s a great one too. If we stay with the author metaphor this might be like how a writer not only writes the story but must spell-check and edit it at the end, refining the story before it gets sent off to publish. Jesus will do that in our lives as well, right up to the final edit. Many centuries ago John Chrysostom said of this passage: “He put the beginning into us; he will also put on the end”.
As to the “who for the joy set before him”, it is possible the text actually reads “who instead of the joy set before him”- the exact opposite. Both are possible in the Greek. Each one would make sense in it’s own way. Perhaps the joy is our salvation, brought about by Jesus’ suffering. Or maybe the joy was the joy Jesus had with the Father before He came in the flesh. I has a person bias in favor of the first interpretation just because the whole thrust of this passage is looking forward to the great finish line of our lives.
So, what does this passage say that Jesus had to endure? Three things, quite plainly at least: extreme pain, shame, and opposition from sinful men. Why are we to consider this? Not because Jesus has made it so that we magically don’t have to also experience these things, as some prosperity teachers would have people believe. But because we will experience these things as well, as we pick up our crosses and follow Jesus. But we don’t have to be defeated by these things, rather, we press and through them and God turns them into occasions for joy, as He did with his Son.
Why does the author of Hebrews think it important to consider Jesus? What’s at stake for his listeners here in verse 3? He’s apparently concerned that they might be losing heart and growing weary of the race. Have you ever been in that place? What brought you through? Can you see how looking to Jesus’ example through reading Scripture on a regular basis can help us press on through those times we want to give up?
With my running lately, I have of course experienced days when I really don’t want to go out and run. But I’ve found at those times one of the best motivators to still do it is to think of others who, through self-sacrifice, have also disciplined themselves to achieve something.
4In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. We can't relate to this, huh? It’s important to realize in whatever trials we’re going through that there are people who have had to suffer bodily for their faith. Something to give us a bit of perspective.
5And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:
"My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
6because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."7Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. It’s important for us to define what the author means by “discipline” in this passage. There are two associations that the word “discipline” might have in our culture, as there were in ancient Greco-Roman culture: punishment or training.
I think both are in view in the quote from Proverbs above, but since the context of this passage isn’t suffering for our sins, but suffering for the sake of Christ, the main idea here is “discipline” as “training”.
This is important in how we interpret it when God allows us to suffer hardship in life. There are of course times when God allows or even brings suffering our way because of our own sin. But what are we to make of it when we suffer something in a seemingly random way? For instance, if we should get sick and not be healed, if we should suffer a tragic accident, should we interpret this as God punishing us?
That’s not what this passage is saying. However, it is saying something that I think some Christians try to avoid.
Sometimes in our haste to disassociate God from anything bad that occurs, we might stress too much the randomness or meaninglessness of suffering. But this passage doesn’t leave much room for that. It says with no qualification (that I can detect), that all hardship should be seen as discipline/ training.
If God is not punishing us through hardship, are we to think of him as nevertheless gleefully sending trouble our way so that we can be trained? No, I think that would be a misrepresentation of God as well. We have reason from Scripture to think that God feels our pain when we suffer (), so it’s not that. It’s that God can use suffering, even the worst, to shape us, conform us, train us into imitations of Jesus.
Should we say that God “sends” hardship or that God “allows” hardship to come our way randomly or from the devil?
That’s a really tough question and much ink has been spilt by philosophers and theologians on that subject, of which I’ve read a fair amount and still think it’s murky. But I suspect, at least at this stage in my thinking, that all three are likely possible at various times. Sometimes in Scripture it does seem like God directly sends one of his followers into a trial. At other times, it seems that God allows Satan to be the causal agent (Job 1). Other times it seems that hardship can befall us randomly (Luke 13:1-5) as a result of simply living in a world in which God has willed that there be free will, probability, and randomness.
Remember earlier in Hebrews when it was said that Jesus, though he was God’s son, learned obedience from what He suffered? (Heb. 5:8) The author of Hebrews is saying that even Jesus went through this training. And we know that God the Father loved Jesus as a dearly beloved Son. He loves us in the same way.
9Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! 10Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. I always wince a little at verse 9 at first blush I think of people who had awful, cruel fathers. Can they really have respected their fathers for the discipline they inflicted? But I think, again, here we’re talking about discipline that was corrective, helpful, useful for the growth of the child. And of course, he’s speaking in generalities here anyway. I like how in verse 10 he admits that our parents didn’t always discipline us for good, but insists that God always does. And what is the reason, again, why we must be trained/ disciplined by hardship? To be made holy, to be changed from the tragic sinful condition we find ourselves in in order to be restored to an untainted relationship with our Father.
Now he throws out a farming metaphor- discipline is like the hard work of planting crops, but we reap the benefit later. Can you think of hardship that you’ve gone through that God clearly brought a great harvest from? Now think of sufferings you’ve gone through where you can’t (yet) see the harvest. Do you trust that God can bring the harvest in his own timing? Can you use the experiences you have had of “harvest” to give you confidence in the experiences that don’t seem to have come to a harvest yet?
The author’s use of the word “trained” in verse 11, which is the Greek “gymnazo”, from which we get our word gymnasium, gives us some final assurance that the kind of discipline we are talking about here is not primarily punishment but formative training/ molding.
12Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13"Make level paths for your feet," so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.Here the author reminds us of Isaiah 35:3 and Proverbs 4:26. Weariness and the temptation to give up has disabled the recipients of Hebrews. But pressing through their hardships with the confidence of Jesus’ own example will not only help them keep limping along, but bring about healing in the process.
*Is this evidence of Pauline authorship? Interestingly, Colossians 3 has another Hebrews parallel- Paul mentions “shadows” as he did in Hebrews 10)