Remember the “Bird’s Nest?” It’s the Beijing China National Stadium, home to the 2008 Summer Olympics. It was dubbed the “Bird’s Nest” because the stadium’s external structure resembled a metallic weaving of twig-like steel in the shape of a bird’s nest.
An Olympic host city’s stadium plays a big part in the motivation of the competing athletes, especially in the track and field events. The crowd is very important, especially for the more grueling events. Nearing the end of every Olympic games, usually on the last day, the marathon is run. The always grueling 26 mile race course winds through the city streets and countryside of the host city, and always finishes in the stadium.
As the runners near the end of the race, they enter the stadium moving onto the oval track for the final laps of the race. When the marathoners in the ’08 Olympics entered the Bird’s Nest, the 100,000 plus crowd were loudly cheering on the runners as they appeared in the stadium. Runners at this point are spent, in need of all the encouragement they can get to finish strong. The enthusiastic crowd cheered the athletes on, motivating the exhausted runners to find their last bit of energy to persevere and cross the finish line.
This “cheering on” of runners, tired and exhausted from a long and arduous race, reminds me of a passage in Hebrews where a “great crowd” is watching runners finish a very important race... a race wherein finishing has eternal consequences.
Hebrews 12:1-2... (1) Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, (2) fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
There’s nothing unclear about this passage... it says that Christians have a race to run. It sounds like it will be a long and arduous race fraught with many hindrances to the runner. Verse one suggests that a runner in this important race “...lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us.”
Like the runners in an Olympic marathon who fix their dreams on winning a gold medal, and maybe setting a world record, winning becomes their prime motivation. All marathoners know there will be only one winner... one gold medal awarded. But everyone can be victorious in a marathon, because there is great honor in finishing well... crossing the finish line. Spectators admire the courage it takes to run a marathon and become the runners greatest encouragement as they near the finish.
A marathon is a great example of the race we are running in our Christian lives. We’re are not commanded to compete with one another to see who crosses the finish line first... no gold medals are awarded, no records will be recorded. We’re simply commanded to run the race with endurance, consistency, focused on finishing well.
Unfortunately, there is a barrier to our running and finishing well. It is... “the sin which so easily entangles us.” What Christians face today is not new. The same entanglements, distractions, and age old problem of sin, distracted the first century Christians in the same way we’re distracted today.
The book of Hebrews was written to a Church that was getting old, settling into the world and losing its wartime mentality. It was starting to drift through life without focus, without vigilance and without energy. Their hands were growing weak, their knees were feeble. It was just easier to meander among the crowds of life than to courageously run a marathon.
For example, in Hebrews 2:1-3, it says that "we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. . . . How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" The church of the first century was becoming infected with the disease of drifting and neglecting. People were growing careless, negligent and spiritually lazy. That same sort of infection is affecting the Church today.
Hebrews 3:12-13 further warns... "Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called 'Today,' lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." The writer of Hebrews had heard that some believers were no longer "taking care." They had acquired a lazy sense of security about their spirituality. They developed a false notion that nothing really huge was at stake in their walk with Christ. They had adopted the attitude that their walk with God was nothing more or less significant than everyday life, and required no special attention or extra energy. They were no longer concerned with meditating on the Bible, taking time to pray or being vigilant in fighting the battle against sin. They assumed all would be well for them. God inspired the letter to the Hebrews to be written to teach them and us... the foolishness of our thinking.
A rather startling jolt to our senses is recorded in Hebrews 5:12... "Though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food." They made a profession of faith but then descended into a passive, coasting mode. This is the wrong course and wrong attitude for a Christian’s life journey. God means for every believer to be constantly moving forward, making gains in maturity, wisdom and holiness. God expects all believers to move quickly and decisively from being getters to being givers, from being taught to being teachers.
One more jolt... Hebrews 12:12-13 says, "Strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed." The imagery painted here of their spiritual condition is not very attractive... weak hands, feeble knees, crooked paths.
As the Church matured and grew, it also became sluggish, weighed down with all manner of baggage. That's the condition of many believers and many congregations today. So the impetuous of Hebrews 12:1b becomes very personal... "Let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." This command does not come out of the blue. This is the point of the Hebrews message to Christians then and now. Endure, persevere, run, fight, be alert, be strengthened, don't drift, don't neglect, don't be sluggish, don't take your salvation and your saved status for granted. Fight the fight of faith on the basis of Christ's spectacular death and resurrection. And show your faith the way the saints of Hebrews 11 did - not by coasting through life, but by counting reproach for Christ and Kingdom service to be greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt (Hebrews 11:26).
So what’s the main point? It’s just one imperative... RUN! (Hebrews 12:1). Everything God has prepared, supports you in the race of your life. Run the race set before you! Don't stroll, don't meander, don't wander about aimlessly getting into distracting situations and very often... trouble with sin. Run as if you’re in a race with a finish line and with everything depending on you crossing that finish line.
To this end, verse Hebrews 12:1 says, "lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us." What does that mean to you? Simple... we must lay aside not only entangling sins, but "every encumbrance." That is... every weight, every obstacle, every distraction in our lives must be removed from our path.
This was revolutionary counsel for the early church. Frankly, it’s still pretty revolutionary with believers today. The race of the Christian life is not fought or run well by constantly asking, "what's wrong with this or that?" It’s run well by asking, "is it in the way of my developing greater faith, greater love, greater purity, greater courage, greater humility, greater patience, greater self-control and growing holiness?
Much of the stuff that entangles us may be sin, but not everything... not all things are sinful. So the real question to ask yourself as you sort through your life for an inventory of the things you need to clear out of the way is this... Does it help me run the race? Is it in my way? Could it become a distraction? You get the idea... many questions will come to your mind as you seriously contemplate the baggage you carry around as you attempt to run the “race of your life” without entanglements and encumbrances.
Hebrews 12:1 is a command to look at your life, think hard about what you are doing, and get ruthless about what stays and what goes. We should be encouraged by those who have gone faithfully before us... crossing the finish line and winning God’s everlasting approval. You have the training, you have the support system, you have God and that “great crowd of witnesses” cheering you on.
Run with endurance and finish well... the race set before you.
