A Cross-Shaped Perseverance--October 12, 2023

A Cross-Shaped Perseverance--October 12, 2023

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, 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, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God." [Hebrews 12:1-2]

An awful lot of the Christian life is just learning to walk in Jesus' footsteps.

We get it wrong an awful lot of the time, to be sure.  And, yes, we often find that our lives throw us into situations for which we don't have a perfect analogy in the Gospels (we don't have any stories of Jesus modeling proper social media etiquette, or deciding whom to vote for since he didn't live in anything like a democracy).  But in the most basic sense, the New Testament keeps coming back to a rhythmic internal logic that goes something like this:  "Because Jesus has done X, we do X as well."

We know verses like:  "We love because he first loved us," or "If I, your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet."  Or there's Jesus teaching his disciples that they are called to serve one another and place themselves in the lowest place, directly because of his own way of serving: "for the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many."  Over and over again, that's the pattern of the New Testament: Jesus loved, so we love... Jesus forgave, so we forgive... Jesus served others, so we serve others... Jesus associated with the lowly, so we associate with the lowly... Jesus took up his cross, and so we bear the cross, too.

And so it makes total sense that when the writer of Hebrews talks about enduring and persistent love, the example of Jesus is our touchstone one again.  We are called to keep enduring, "running with perseverance the race that is set before us," because none other than Jesus did the same first.  Jesus showed us enduring, persevering love first, and therefore we have both an example to follow, but also his enduring love makes our own love possible.  We are able to endure and persist in our lives, because Jesus makes us able--he gives us the capacity and strength to keep going when it would be easier to give in and give up.

So far, so good, right?  Makes perfect sense to say that because Jesus "endured" that we are now both called and enabled to "endure" in this life as well.  That's New Testament Ethics and Discipleship 101 stuff. So then, let's just take the next step and ask the unavoidable question: "What exactly does it mean to say that Jesus 'endured'?"  What did Jesus persist at that we are called to follow suit with?  In what ways did Jesus persevere, and how are we supposed to follow him?  Again, that seems like a necessary and obvious question to ask, because there are some ways we can't be like Jesus (we don't have divine power to multiply loaves or cure leprosy at a distance, I'd wager), and there are some ways that aren't at the core of who Jesus is that aren't necessary to imitate (it's OK, for example, that Jesus' skin was almost certainly darker and browner than mine, or that I don't speak Aramaic or wear sandals all the time--those are not required of me to follow in Jesus' footsteps).  So what does the writer of Hebrews mean when he says that we're supposed to "run the race with perseverance" while we "look to Jesus" as our example?

Well, for starters, the obvious answer is what the writer of Hebrews himself offers:  Jesus "endured the cross, disregarding its shame."  Jesus' kind of enduring love led him to a particular response in the world--to be willing to lay down his life as his response to evil.  Jesus "endured" the cross--choosing to be crucified by his enemies rather than to crucify them, and accepting the mockery, shame, and the appearance of weakness that came with a cross, rather than to inflict those on others.  The cross, after all, was not Jesus' defeat by the Empire, evil, and death, but exactly the place of his victory over them because of his refusal to resort to their terms and tactics.  Jesus' victory is precisely that he is unwilling to add more evil into the world by killing his enemies or hating his crucifiers; he endures in the path of self-giving, non-vengeful love that would rather absorb and exhaust evil's fury than give it more power by returning evil for evil, violence for violence, or hatred for hatred.  This is what it means to say that Jesus "endures." It is his love that persists, even when his heart stops beating.  It is that same defiantly persevering love that causes Jesus' lungs to breathe again on the third day.  And it is that same commitment to self-giving love as a way of life that the writer of Hebrews calls us to.

I do think we need to be clear about that, because otherwise it can sound like "endurance" and "perseverance" are just about endless repetition of futile labor, like the old Greek myth of Sisyphus pushing the boulder up the hill every day, only to have it roll back down and require him to start again.  Jesus' kind of "persevering" isn't meaningless expenditure of energy for no point.  And it isn't just about mindless repetition of the same task that never gets done.  When the writer of Hebrews calls us to "run the race set before us," it is not an eternally looping race course of infinite laps without a destination.  Nor is he just yelling at us to "Get back to work and don't complain!"  He is calling us very specifically in a particular course of action in the face of hatred and evil--we are called to follow Jesus' example in the way he responded to evil by not giving into its tactics, and absorbing its fury without weaponizing it and lobbing it back.  Jesus was mistreated, abused, and tortured by the Romans, but he would not inflict abuse or torture back on them (even though that would well have been within his divine "power" to do).  Jesus was mocked and shown no mercy, but he refused to answer on those terms, and instead prayed for mercy for his killers ("Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do....".  Jesus was made a victim so that the Empire would look strong and tough and great (that's why they crucified people--their cruelty was a warning that "You don't mess with Rome... or else!"), but Jesus would not do the same back to the ones holding the hammer. Maybe hardest of all for us to swallow is that Jesus was willing to bear the smug looks on his enemies' faces, as they were certain that they "won" and he "lost" because he wasn't fighting back on their terms--and yet for him to know all the while that it was his refusal to fight on their terms that was his victory.  That's hard stuff. Jesus' kind of endurance was the indefatigability of his love--and that is what we are called to follow, according to Hebrews.

We may not be literally crucified for it, but we may well lose our lives or our livelihoods by following Jesus' example.  We may be looked down on as weak or foolish or naive, but then again, so was Jesus.  Whatever else it may mean for us to walk in Jesus' footsteps, the one thing the New Testament is unequivocally clear about is our calling to love the way Jesus loved.  That love is not only wider than we would have expected (including outsiders, sinners, and enemies) but also deeper and longer than we could have imagined (persisting even in the face of hatred, mockery, and a cross).  Today, how will we be called to love people in the pattern of Jesus: answering hatred with compassion, responding to mockery with decency, and choosing not to fight evil with more evil or cruelty with more cruelty?

I know it's hard to imagine what that would look like, or how we will survive the attempt, but the One who went ahead of us as the pioneer and perfecter of our faith shows us that there is resurrection victory waiting through the way of the cross.  Let's take the next step on that path today.

Lord Jesus, give us the clarity and the courage to love the way you love--refusing to answer hatred with more hatred, cruelty with more cruelty, evil with more evil.  And let your kind of cross-shaped victory become our own.