Justin Langford
- Kjelder
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
Endurance in our faith.
Justin has been at St. Alban's since 2023. He is the Chapel Administrator and Music Director.
Today's devotional is based on:
“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,” - Hebrews 12:1
Devotional
Today’s scripture is full of striking and memorable phrases. The author conjures “a cloud of witnesses,” reminding us to “lay aside…sin that clings so closely” so that we can “run with perseverance the race that is set before us.” Here, Jesus is “the pioneer and perfecter of our faith,” and we must “[c]onsider him…so that [we] may not grow weary or lose heart.” Despite the potential familiarity (or quotability) of the passage, though, it is valuable to look closely at it again.
The imagery of running a race can feel especially relevant for any number of challenges we may encounter throughout all aspects of our lives. Still, the author of Hebrews exhorts us more specifically to take heart in the face of the obstacles we face in our journeys of faith. Likewise, where the “cloud of witnesses” may evoke a sense of all the faithful who have preceded us, the author is especially referring back to the examples of faith from Abraham, Sarah, and Moses discussed in the previous chapter. The reference to “the sin that clings so closely” elsewhere could be rendered to refer to whatever deters us from our goal, in this case, very much the goal of having faith.
Hebrews draws Jesus as the highest realization of the priestly traditions that began in Genesis. The priests enacted rituals to bring us closer to God through worship. They performed sacrifices for the absolution of sin. Jesus, as both High Priest and Sacrifice, accomplishes these more perfectly than was possible for his earthly predecessors.
While encouraging us to endurance, the author reminds us of the obstacles Jesus endured to effect his sacrifice: the hostility of sinners, and the shame of the cross. As we come near the end of this Lenten season, itself just another stage in our life-long journeys of faith, I pray that we recall the example of Jesus, that we not grow weary, that we endure in our faith.
