February 14th, 2024
The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games were a disaster for U.S. Men’s sprinters, punctuated by a botched baton pass in the 4x100 relay. Tyson Gay, the 3rd runner in the four-man race, reached back but felt nothing. Darvis Patton was there but somehow the baton missed Gay’s hand, and even with a final lunge to get it to him, the baton fell to the ground, bounced off the track, and left the crowd in stunned disbelief.
Eight years later, on the women’s side, the U.S. team made a similar mistake. Allyson Felix stumbled and tossed the baton into the air in the direction of English Gardner. After a few tortuous hundredths of a second passed, the baton hit the ground, ultimately causing Felix’s team to lose. However, Felix picked up the baton and passed it on anyway, and the American team finished the race, well behind all the other teams. Their completion of the race ended up being decisive, though, when a replay showed that Felix had been bumped by another runner. After their protest was upheld and they qualified in a solo rerun later that day, Felix and Gardner’s team won the gold medal! Here’s the thing though: if they hadn’t finished the botched race, they would have never been permitted to file a protest.
In reality, each of us are running a relay race. The baton has been passed to us – in one way or another – and our job is to take it and run to the finish line. This is the picture described by the author of Hebrews in Hebrews 12. The imperative of the passage is this, “let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” We are commanded, “Run!” But before that, he paints an even larger scene. This isn’t an individual trail run (my favorite) or a beach run (also good), but more like the Olympic races – in a stadium, perhaps even with large crowds!
I used to think that the first clause meant that our forefathers were watching us. Now, I’m pretty sure the opposite is true. It reads, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses…” Looking back into chapter 11, we see those who have borne witness to their faith. We’ve seen example after example, and throughout, the author has driven home that their lives are instructive for us today. James Moffat says, “It is what we see in them, not what they see in us, that is the writer’s main point.”
In this sense, we’ve received the perfect baton handoff. Not necessarily from parents or grandparents, but certainly from the faithful men and women of old. The word “witnesses” comes from the same root as the word used five times in Hebrews 11 to designate those who “bore witness” and “gained approval” (11:2,4,5,39). In other words, these men and women became “witnesses” by virtue of their faith in God’s promises, and we too must bear witness to our faith by running the race in front of us.
To do this, we are to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us.” The writer continues the running analogy, building on the fact that runners in the stadium in the ancient world ran virtually naked. They would enter wearing colorful robes, then discard them as the race was about to begin. It was not unlike pro-wrestlers today who wear ornate costumes during their introductions but strip down to a singlet to fight.
For Christians, anything that would impede our progress, and in particular, any sin that would distract us or trip us up, must be set aside. Then we can “run with endurance the race that is set before us.”
Most relays are short distance sprints, but not this race. The Christian life is more like a marathon, long and arduous. Marathons require endurance. The author of Hebrews pointed out the Christian need for endurance just a few verses before launching into the men and women of faith. “For you have need of endurance,” reads Hebrews 10:36, “so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.” Many of the examples of chapter 11 endured for great periods of time – Noah, Abraham, Moses, to name a few. This should be an encouragement. Like them, we should expect difficulty and hardship. No marathon is easy. But we enter the race God has set before us knowing that others have endured and been found faithful, so with God’s help, we can endure as well.
So take the baton and start running. There’s no need to sprint; just put one foot in front of the other – day by day, week by week. That’s what it means to “run with endurance.” And that’s how we, like the great cloud of witnesses, can obtain a testimony of faith as they did.
Eight years later, on the women’s side, the U.S. team made a similar mistake. Allyson Felix stumbled and tossed the baton into the air in the direction of English Gardner. After a few tortuous hundredths of a second passed, the baton hit the ground, ultimately causing Felix’s team to lose. However, Felix picked up the baton and passed it on anyway, and the American team finished the race, well behind all the other teams. Their completion of the race ended up being decisive, though, when a replay showed that Felix had been bumped by another runner. After their protest was upheld and they qualified in a solo rerun later that day, Felix and Gardner’s team won the gold medal! Here’s the thing though: if they hadn’t finished the botched race, they would have never been permitted to file a protest.
In reality, each of us are running a relay race. The baton has been passed to us – in one way or another – and our job is to take it and run to the finish line. This is the picture described by the author of Hebrews in Hebrews 12. The imperative of the passage is this, “let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” We are commanded, “Run!” But before that, he paints an even larger scene. This isn’t an individual trail run (my favorite) or a beach run (also good), but more like the Olympic races – in a stadium, perhaps even with large crowds!
I used to think that the first clause meant that our forefathers were watching us. Now, I’m pretty sure the opposite is true. It reads, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses…” Looking back into chapter 11, we see those who have borne witness to their faith. We’ve seen example after example, and throughout, the author has driven home that their lives are instructive for us today. James Moffat says, “It is what we see in them, not what they see in us, that is the writer’s main point.”
In this sense, we’ve received the perfect baton handoff. Not necessarily from parents or grandparents, but certainly from the faithful men and women of old. The word “witnesses” comes from the same root as the word used five times in Hebrews 11 to designate those who “bore witness” and “gained approval” (11:2,4,5,39). In other words, these men and women became “witnesses” by virtue of their faith in God’s promises, and we too must bear witness to our faith by running the race in front of us.
To do this, we are to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us.” The writer continues the running analogy, building on the fact that runners in the stadium in the ancient world ran virtually naked. They would enter wearing colorful robes, then discard them as the race was about to begin. It was not unlike pro-wrestlers today who wear ornate costumes during their introductions but strip down to a singlet to fight.
For Christians, anything that would impede our progress, and in particular, any sin that would distract us or trip us up, must be set aside. Then we can “run with endurance the race that is set before us.”
Most relays are short distance sprints, but not this race. The Christian life is more like a marathon, long and arduous. Marathons require endurance. The author of Hebrews pointed out the Christian need for endurance just a few verses before launching into the men and women of faith. “For you have need of endurance,” reads Hebrews 10:36, “so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.” Many of the examples of chapter 11 endured for great periods of time – Noah, Abraham, Moses, to name a few. This should be an encouragement. Like them, we should expect difficulty and hardship. No marathon is easy. But we enter the race God has set before us knowing that others have endured and been found faithful, so with God’s help, we can endure as well.
So take the baton and start running. There’s no need to sprint; just put one foot in front of the other – day by day, week by week. That’s what it means to “run with endurance.” And that’s how we, like the great cloud of witnesses, can obtain a testimony of faith as they did.
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