Biblical Text

You can read Hebrews 12.1-17 here.

Sermon Video

You can watch the sermon video here.

Sermon Transcript

[Note: The actual sermon will differ somewhat from what I had typed.]

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” These words of Jim Elliot have haunted me since the day I first read them. Whether I am explicitly aware of it or not at any given moment, I know that the exhortation implicit in those words is the one by which I attempt – though very often in vain – to measure my life. It is a tall ask. But I think it is the one to which I have been called. Today we continue our series of sermons on the book of Hebrews. Last week we looked at chapter 11 – the faith chapter. 

Today we turn the page to the first part of chapter 12. And immediately we see why having chapter divisions might help us locate verses but does not help us understand the text. The first word we read is ‘therefore’ and as the common maxim for interpretation of texts goes, when you see the word ‘therefore’ ask yourself, “What’s the ‘therefore’ there for?” It is a transition word that introduces a consequence to what precedes it. And so we must conclude that, if chapter 12 begins with ‘therefore’ the reasons for it must lie in chapter 11.

And indeed, we can easily conclude that the ‘cloud of witnesses’ mentioned in chapter 12 comprises all the people mentioned in the hall of fame of chapter 11. But this immediately brings up two questions. First, what does the word ‘witnesses’ mean in this context? Second, why does Hebrews present these ‘witnesses’ before moving to this section of exhortation? Let us tackle these two questions for without answering them we cannot understand today’s passage.

So what does the word ‘witnesses’ mean in context? The Greek word μάρτυς is correctly rendered as witness, which has three broad strands of meaning. First, a witness is a person who sees an event take place. Second, a witness is a person giving sworn testimony to a court of law or the police. Third, a witness is a person who is present at the signing of a document and signs it themselves to confirm this. The third meaning evidently does not work in our context for Hebrews 11 is not speaking of these people as signatories of any covenant document. 

So we are left with the first two meanings – either a person who sees something unfold or a person who gives sworn testimony. One source says that ‘cloud of witnesses’ is “a figurative representation and means that we ought to act as if they were in sight and cheering us on to the same victory in the life of faith that they obtained.” Another says that this is a reference to “saints and angels observing us, as the crowd in a great stadium cheers on those on the playing field.” Both of these, and there are many more, advocate the first meaning. 

Quite frankly, this meaning is strange and does not follow from Hebrews 11. In Hebrews 11, the author writes about the faithful acts of all the people listed. They are not passive spectators cheering us in our active faith. There is no such indication anywhere in the bible that the heroes of the Old Testament and our loved ones who have passed away are observing us to cheer us on. This is the effect that an individualistic approach to the scriptures has on our interpretation of it. We make it all about ourselves thinking that those who have died are cheering us on.

However, what Hebrews 11 has described is how the Old Testament heroes lived their lives of faith and provide us with their testimony in the Hebrew bible. Abraham gives his testimony in Genesis, Moses in Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. When we read those passages of scripture, we listen to their voices speaking to us. Abraham speaks to us not only about his faithfulness but also of when he passed Sarah off as his sister and when he slept with Hagar. Moses speaks to us not just of the Exodus and the receiving of the Law but also of his disobedience.

The episodes of faithfulness tell us what faithfulness looks like. And the occasions of disobedience showcase what disobedience looks like. We, all too often, think of people in black and white terms. A person is either a person of faith or is not. So we don’t recognise the faithlessness of Gideon in asking for the sign with the fleece, his faithfulness in sorting through the people, his faithfulness in confusing the Midianites and his faithlessness in setting up his own place of worship. 

In like manner, we don’t recognise the faithfulness of Jephthah in giving the Ammonites an opportunity for a peaceful solution and the faithlessness of his rash vow that resulted in his daughter being offered as a sacrifice. The bible presents us with people like us who are faithful one moment and faithless the next. And each of these people gives sworn testimony to us before God in the pages of scripture. They are not spiritual cheerleaders, but witnesses presented in court to testify about when they were faithful and when they were not.

This brings us to the second question: Why does Hebrews present these ‘witnesses’ before moving to this section of exhortation? Why do we need such testimony? The great American author Herman Melville wrote, “It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” The English priest Charles Caleb Colton gave us the popular aphorism, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” These quotes indicate how little both Melville and Colton understood the depths of human nature as God has made us.

The bible, however, has understood how we are wired and how we learn to act. This is why on the first page itself we read, “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Have you ever looked in a mirror? Of course you have! Even I have! Your reflection in the mirror cannot exist without your being in front of it. But whatever you do, when in front of the mirror, your image also does. It mirrors your actions perfectly and because of this it can be said to be a true representation of you.

If we paged through the bible we would read similar accounts. The Israelites were told to drive out the Canaanites because the presence of the Canaanite forms of worship in the land would entice the Israelites to follow suit. And it did! And they did! Later we see Jesus tell his disciples, “As the Father sent me, so I send you.” And Paul tells the Corinthians, “Imitate me as I imitate Christ.” What’s going on in these passages? What is the bible pointing to that we have so often ignored or perhaps even rejected?

The French sociologist René Girard wrote, “Passive, submissive imitation does exist, but hatred of conformity and extreme individualism are no less imitative. Today they constitute a negative conformism that is more formidable than the positive version. More and more, it seems to me, modern individualism assumes the form of a desperate denial of the fact that, through mimetic desire, each of us seeks to impose his will upon his fellow man, whom he professes to love but more often despises.”

What Girard is saying is that, without imitation, it is impossible to be human. Humans learn to be human by observing the humans around them. We may like what we see, in which case we imitate those humans by replicating their actions. On the other hand, we may dislike what we see, in which case we imitate by rejecting their actions. This explains why fans of a celebrity often dress themselves in clothes similar to those worn by the celebrity and why, if that celebrity should fall from grace, they distance themselves by changing their wardrobe.

The mimetic nature of humans is why we have such a variety of cultures across the earth. There is no one way of being human from a cultural perspective. And similarly, there is no one way of being faithful to God from the perspective of Hebrews 11. That is why we have a hall of fame in Hebrews 11 so we can see a wonderful array of examples of the lives of people of faith. So if anyone should ever tell you that there is only one way of being faithful to God, reject that view. Moses himself discovered that at times you need to speak to a rock, not strike it.

After exhorting us to run with perseverance by taking the examples of the Old Testament heroes, Hebrews asks us to look to Jesus who is the author and perfecter of our faithfulness. Those of you who have come to the bible study may remember that I believe that there is a specific Greek construction with the word πίστις which indicates that the author is not talking about faith or belief, but faithfulness or fidelity. This construction appears in verse 2, which is why I have rendered it with the word ‘faithfulness’.

What Hebrews is saying is that we must certainly look to the heroes of the faith in the past and see their examples and learn from them, but we must remember that it is Jesus who starts and finishes the work of making us faithful. Let me repeat. The examples in Hebrews 11 are there in the scriptures as their testimony from which we must learn, but it is Jesus who is the originator and completer of our ability to be faithful. Hebrews then gives us a description of Jesus, which we will skip for now and return to later.

Hebrews, however, tells the readers, “In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” What this refers to is intrinsically linked to the historical context within which the book was written. After all, how else could we know what struggle against sin the book mentions and why there was a possibility of resisting to the point of shedding their blood? Hebrews, as we have mentioned before, is an anonymous book. There are very few explicit historical references which we could rely on.

However, given that the book seems to assume that the rituals of the tabernacle were still operational, it is almost certain that the book was written before AD 70 when the temple was destroyed, bringing to an end all the rituals associated with it. Prior to AD 70, the only situation in which Christians were persecuted with the possibility of death was under Nero following the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64. Nero blamed the Christians for starting the fire with a plan of coordinated arson and began his campaign against the Christians.

According to the Roman historian Tacitus, “Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Chrestians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus. Writing in the early second century, Tacitus not only gives extra biblical evidence for Jesus and his crucifixion, but also to the persecution of the Christians under Nero.

Given that the persecution under Nero was restricted to the city of Rome, it seems clear to me not only that Hebrews was addressed to Christians in Rome, but also that it was a mixed group of Jews but primarily Gentiles who were the recipients of this sermon. After mentioning the fact that the recipients had not yet suffered to the point of death Hebrews then moves to a section that discusses being disciplined by God. This is a very difficult section and one that has given rise to some horrendous ideas of how God relates to us.

Before proceeding, let us remind ourselves of the context within which Hebrews was written. Following the Great Fire of Rome, Nero accused the Christians of arson and launched a campaign against them. In such a situation what manner of discipline would be needed? I have heard some messages in which the idea of discipline here is taken to be such as would be meted out to a wayward child. For example, if a child disobeyed her father, the father may inflict some form of corporal punishment as a way of disciplining, that is, punishing her.

Commenting on Hebrews 12, Charles Spurgeon wrote, “If we murmur at a little, God gives us something that will make us cry. If we groan for nothing, he will give us something that will make us groan.” Over the years, I have grown increasingly disturbed by Spurgeon’s interpretation of various scriptures and this is one. According to him, if we complain when we haven’t reached the point of death, God will send something our way to really make us groan about. Is this the God we see in the bible, who responds kindly to those who are in pain?

This kind of sadistic interpretation of scripture which just brushes away people’s pain is abominable and something I would like us to be aware of and be guarded against. Think of it in the context of Hebrews. The recipients were being persecuted by Nero. And Spurgeon would tell them that some of them had paid with their lives because they complained about less severe things. Is this really the Gospel? I totally reject such lines of thinking that diminish another person’s pain under the pretext of divine action.

And people like Spurgeon were able to make such obscene claims because they committed two faults. First, he did not anchor his interpretation in the context of the first hearers, but allowed his imagination to drift away unmoored from the occasion that made the author of Hebrews write his sermon. Second, and this is true of most commentators, ancient and modern, he did not think of how the different languages affect the meaning of the text. Let me explain this. Please bear with me a while because this is not going to be easy.

While introducing the section on being disciplined by God, Hebrews quotes from Proverbs 3.11-12. In the NRSV, Hebrews 12.5-6 reads, “My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, or lose heart when you are punished by him; for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, and chastises every child whom he accepts.” However, in Proverbs 3.11-12 we read, “My child, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves the one he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.”

The main difference is in the last clause. Hebrews has “and chastises every child whom he accepts” while Proverbs has “as a father the son in whom he delights.” The NRSV has actually softened the words of Hebrews. Hebrews uses the word μαστιγόω which in all other places in the New Testament refers to the scourging Jesus received prior to his crucifixion or that received by the first disciples when they were arrested in the book of Acts. The only exception is the one in Hebrews 12, which should make us think twice. 

The last clause in the NRSV should be “and scourges every child whom he accepts.” The difference between Proverbs and Hebrews is stark. The text of Proverbs is quite gentle, while Hebrews is harsh. Proverbs certainly has a parallel with the preceding clause about being reproved by God. But the focus of Proverbs is that of being loved by God. Hebrews, on the other hand, continues not with the thought of love, but chastisement and that too by escalating it to incorporate the idea of scourging.

Why this difference? Simply put, translation. You see, when Hebrews was written the only available Greek translation of the Hebrew bible was the Septuagint. And for reasons lost to time, the translators of the Septuagint chose the Greek word μαστιγόω in Proverbs 3.12, even though the last clause in Hebrews actually has no verb. Moreover, they chose to drop the word for father, which is in the Hebrew text of Proverbs 3.12. The only explanation I can think of is that the two words – for ‘scourges’ and for ‘as a father’ sound similar in Hebrew. 

So if the text was being dictated and the person who was making the translation misheard karab instead of ka-ab we would explain the change. Now remember that Hebrews is a sermon. The so-called author was more likely an orator. And he would have been quoting from the only Greek version of the Hebrew scriptures to which he had access – namely the Septuagint – and that too from memory. And so he has the clause about scourging when the original Hebrew text of Proverbs had a reference to a father’s discipline of the child he loves. 

Where does this all get us? Well, simply put, the rest of the text of Hebrews and the context within which it was written clearly indicate that Hebrews did not mean that the difficulties faced by the audience were a sign that God was punishing them. If he meant punishment like scourging he could have kept using μαστιγόω. However, in verses 7-11, Hebrews uses the word παιδεύω and its cognates no less than six times to underscore what he means. And παιδεύω, from which we get the English word pedagogy, means instruction or teaching.

Now παιδεύω can certainly mean ‘to discipline’ and is used during Jesus’ trial when Pilate says that he will discipline Jesus. And Pilate in that context does mean that he would have Jesus whipped. However, the focus of παιδεύω is on the instruction and not the means through which the instruction is being given. So Pilate was going to teach Jesus a lesson and instruct him about doing things in a way that would not have him end up on a cross. That is what Pilate means when he offers to discipline Jesus. The focus is on the lesson being learnt.

So when Hebrews uses παιδεύω six times instead of μαστιγόω, both of which are in the Septuagint of Proverbs 3.12, we need to pay attention because he is rejecting the idea of scourging and accepting the idea of instruction. This kind of – pardon the pun – disciplined interpretation of our passage is seriously lacking, lending credence to the claim of the New Atheists like Richard Dawkins who called the God of the bible a “capriciously malevolent bully.” However, if our role in the world is to witness to God, then we had better do our best to represent him well.

Unfortunately, as the quote from Spurgeon clearly indicates, we have proposed a view of God who is a “capriciously malevolent bully.” But now we have seen that this is not where Hebrews is taking us. Once we get rid of the obscene idea that all suffering is a sign that God is punishing us, we can truly see what Hebrews would have us understand from his words. He was asking the recipients of his sermon to consider their sufferings as being like the instructions of a father. God was not punishing them but was teaching them through these difficult times. 

They were to alter their perception of the persecution they were facing and to think not that Nero was hounding them but that God was preparing them for something in the future. And as soon as we say that, we need to ask ourselves, “What is this future for which God was preparing the recipients of Hebrews?” It is important for us to answer this question because its answer will apply to us as well. Whatever future God was preparing them for is the future for which he is preparing us for God’s plans are a unified whole.

We can answer this by looking carefully at the two examples Hebrews gives us in our passage. The first example, at the start of the passage, is that of Jesus, while the second example, at the end of the passage, is that of Esau. Let’s look at them in reverse order. You recall the story of Esau. He was the first born of Isaac and Rebekah. His twin brother was Jacob, who was younger by minutes. As the first born son, Esau was set to inherit the lion’s share of Isaac’s possessions. And he was also in line to be the bearer of the promise given to Abraham. 

However, one day he returned home famished and smelled the food that Jacob was cooking. And in an act of hunger induced rashness he sold his birthright to Jacob. Hebrews calls Esau godless and immoral because he rejected his birthright of being the one who would bear the promises given to Abraham. One rash act and it was all over for him. And we feel for him. You cannot read Genesis 27 and not weep with Esau when he asks Isaac, “Have you only one blessing, father? Bless me, me also, father!” That one bowl of pottage cost Esau everything.

What did Esau do that was wrong? What action or inaction resulted in his being dispossessed and disinherited? Humans are the only creatures who can actually plan for the future. Mind you, a squirrel hoarding acorns is an example of an instinct, not a plan. Other animals also display instincts that help them in the future. But only humans can actually plan. Only humans are able to entertain competing decisions and imagine divergent futures that have relative worth. Only humans can truly weigh the consequences of the choices they make.

Many wise people have advocated an approach to life that can be captured in the phrase ‘live in the moment’. I can think of Emily Dickenson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Bill Watterson, Thich Nhat Hanh, Gautama Buddha, and Maya Angelou among so many others. The problem with words of wisdom is that when fools interpret them they become sheer hogwash. The internet is full of fools attempting to interpret the words of these wise people and failing gloriously at it. It is only to be expected from small minds with no imagination.

You see, to live in the moment is not to live for the moment. Those dratted prepositions! Such small words that produce a huge change in meaning. To live in the moment is to not allow your past failures to drag you down, your past successes to inflate your pride, or your imagined future to cause you to worry. But to live for the moment is to live as though your actions have no consequences. And no wise person would ever give such utterly shallow and empty advice. After all, the goal of wisdom is to promote lives worth living.

Esau did not see the distinction between living in the moment and living for the moment. He was famished and was willing to act in a way that would affect his future while denying that there would be any consequences. His hunger blinded him to the fact that his actions had tangible effects. We are material people living in a material world. And God has given us the dignity of allowing our actions to have meaning. What we do today affects tomorrow just as what we did yesterday shaped our today. This is our dignity as humans who are able to choose.

Hebrews presents Jesus as the antithesis of Esau when he writes, “Who for the sake of 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.” Jesus was fully aware that his actions and choices had consequences. At the start of his ministry, the tempter attempted to lure him away from his ministry. “Show them you are bigger than Moses. Show them that you are the designated Son of God. Grab at power by any means.”

And on the night before he was crucified, he struggled immensely with what he needed to do. He knew that, if he stayed the course and remained faithful to God, he would end up on a Roman cross the next day. He could have turned his back on this vocation. What effect would this have had? This thought experiment is explored in the remarkable, but unfortunately misunderstood and maligned, novel The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis. As clearly indicated in the prologue of the book, the entire novel is a what if scenario.

In it Jesus is given a vision of what would happen if he turned away from his mission. He could have a long comfortable life, married with children, dying at an old age, respected by those around him. This was the life most Israelites longed for. And Satan presents him with this temptation. Think about it. Jesus died before reaching the age of thirty five years. He did not get married and had no children. And most of the Jews think of him as a cursed, false teacher. On all counts what was waiting for him beyond Gethsemane was completely undesirable.

Like Esau, Jesus was faced with a real choice. He could go ahead and obey God, leading up to his death. Or he could have turned back and retreated from the task, probably having a long life as desired by most Jewish men of his day. The first choice would lead him to unbelievable pain and anguish and to a shameful death as he hung naked from a cross. The second one would lead him to a life of relative comfort. He chose the former and Hebrews tells us that it was because he had his eye on the joy that was set before him.

Hebrews does not explain what this joy was but we can attempt an understanding. Hebrews began with a declaration that the Son was the culmination of God’s revelation. God had originally spoken in multiple ways and at different times through his prophets. But his final revelation was through his Son. This meant that the Son was the one through whom God would bring to fulfillment all the promises he had announced earlier through the prophets. Jesus realized that through his work God and humans would finally be reconciled.

He realized that through his work, humans would once again be restored as true image bearers of the living God. He knew that through his work, creation would finally be restored by being under the benevolent stewardship of restored image bearers. And he understood that through his work God’s deep divine desire to have his home with humble humans would be realized. This is what gave Jesus joy. He was able to see what his work on the cross would accomplish. And because of this he made his choice and went to the cross.

Hebrews encourages us to take a long view of things and to weigh the consequences of our choices. The decisions we make are not meaningless, but highly impactful. And Hebrews asks us to have a lofty view of our ability to be agents of God in this world. We are to look back on the heroes of faith and see where they were faithful and where they were faithless. We are to immerse ourselves in the scriptures so that we can understand as second nature what being faithful to God would look like in the situations we find ourselves. 

As Hebrews 11 says, “Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect.” These heroes of the Old Testament did not live expecting that God would deliver them from all difficulties. All of them died without the final promise being fulfilled. And Hebrews says that this is because God has a plan where all of his people receive his final blessing together. 

What we learn from this is how to wait without losing faith. We learn that the victorious life of faith and faithfulness does not consist in material wealth and physical health, though God may be gracious and provide both to someone. We recognize that the life of faith is a life in which we refuse the temptation of quick fixes and spiritual shortcuts. We recognize that the life of faith is a life of waiting for the promises of God, especially the ultimate promise of the restoration of all things, while understanding that it may not be fulfilled during our lives.

We recognize that the life of faith is not about our life as we often and erroneously think. Since we may, like the heroes of the faith who have gone before, die before seeing the fulfillment of the ultimate promise of God, we need to recognize that we do not live our lives for our sales alone but that, once we have died, our lives provide those who come after us with our testimony of a mixture of faithfulness and faithlessness. Think about it. Once you die, your life becomes an example for those after you to imitate. 

Hebrews is asking us to think of what it would look like when we too join the hall of fame. What legacy will we be leaving? Will we have regrets about some things? Will we be content about other things? All the heroes of Hebrews 11 had a checkered life, at times being faithful and at other times being faithless. Their faithfulness and their faithlessness provide us with examples, either positive or negative. And certainly we would like our legacy to contain more examples of faithfulness than of faithlessness.

So we are to recognize that our faithfulness can only come from Jesus the author and perfecter of our faithfulness. It is he who gives us the desire to be faithful and the strength and courage to follow up on that desire. He endured the cross, delaying the gratification promised by a quick fix because of the joy he saw beyond the tomb. We too can see beyond the struggles that we face and even beyond our death. We know that, if we are found in Jesus, we will experience the glorious new creation in which God has finally set everything right. 

We know that, if we are faithful ministers of the Gospel, we will be welcomed into the new creation to not just witness a creation that is finally in sync, but also to be agents who promote that wellbeing throughout the new creation. And so from the extreme example of Jesus let us proceed with the task of learning to delay gratification.