The Joy of Perseverance

The message given in the Ash Wednesday services in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on February 22, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Hebrews 12:1-13.

            Ash Wednesday.  A day to repent of our sins.  Repenting does not mean just asking for forgiveness.  That’s certainly involved in it, but repenting is more than that.  Repenting of our sins means making a decisions that we are not going to continue to live as we have been.  Repenting means making serious, substantial, permanent changes in our lives.  Repenting means leaving behind our old life and living a new life, a life patterned after the life of Christ.

            So if that’s what repenting means, why do we have a day set aside for it every year?

            I mean, if last year we came here, and we decided to make serious, substantial, permanent changes in our lives–if we left our old lives behind and started living a new life patterned after the life of Christ–what are we doing here?  Why do we need to repent again?  Apparently what we did last year didn’t “take”.  It did not work.  We left here and slipped right back into our old ways.

            Well, maybe, but maybe not.  I mean, we probably did not live perfect lives since the last Ash Wednesday.  We probably sinned.  We probably did things we should not have done.  We almost certainly did not do things we should have done.  But that does not mean we did not change.  It does not mean we did not improve.  It just means we did not do it perfectly.

            As our reading from the letter to the Hebrews says, sin so easily entangles.  Sin comes disguised in all kinds of forms.  Harmless forms.  Desirable forms.  Even apparently beneficial forms.  I mean, if we did not see some sort of benefit from sin, at least in the short term, it would not be tempting to us, right?  To put it in somewhat frivolous terms, I cannot be tempted to eat broccoli and spinach, because I don’t like broccoli and spinach.  But I can easily be tempted to eat chocolate chip cookies and Dairy Queen Blizzards, because I love those.  If there was not some way in which we saw sin as desirable, we would not be tempted to do it.

            That’s why the letter goes on to say that we must run with perseverance the race set out before us.  Perseverance means continuing to try to do something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.  

That’s what it takes to do this.  Perseverance.  Continuing to try to make serious, substantial changes in our lives, even when we slide back.  Continuing to try to live a life patterned after the life of Christ, even when sometimes we fail.  We make a new resolution.  We make a new commitment.  We try again.  And again, and again.  Perseverance.  It may be difficult for us to achieve success.  Success may be delayed.  But we keep trying.  We persevere.  It takes perseverance to run this race of life the way God calls us to.

The letter tells us how to do this.  It’s simple, really.  Just fix our eyes on Jesus.  

Look at what Jesus did.  As the letter tells us, Jesus is both the pioneer of our faith and the perfecter of our faith.  Jesus is our leader, our teacher, our guide, our example, our everything.  Then, Jesus endured the cross for us.  Jesus died a painful, shameful, horrible death, for us.

The letter points out all this as an encouragement to us.  The author tells us that, if we consider all this, we should not be discouraged.  We should not get tired.  We should not think, we cannot do this, because we can.  Jesus went through a lot more than you or I are likely to ever be asked to go through.  If Jesus can do it, you and I can do it, too.

And our author gives us more encouragement.  He says, look, God is treating you as His children.  What do good parents do?  They discipline their children.  They have to.  He says, one of the most unloving things a parent could do would be to never discipline their children.  How would the children ever learn?  How would they know right from wrong?  How would they know how to behave?  Do children always like that?  No, of course not.  Discipline is not always a lot of fun, is it?  But when we get older, we understand the purpose of it.  We understand that there are things we need to be taught, and the way they’re taught is through discipline.  Parents discipline their children because they love them.

And that’s what God does for us sometimes.  God disciplines us, because God loves us.  That can be hard for us to accept, sometimes.  When we’re going through a tough time, we don’t want to hear this is God’s discipline.  We want God to do something to get us out of the situation.  And sometimes, God does.  But sometimes, God makes us work through the tough situation, because God wants to teach us some things.  It can be hard to see that at the time.  But sometimes, when we look back on something, we can see that God allowed these things to happen for our benefit.  It’s through those things that we develop the perseverance we need.

But there’s one other thing about that.  Even when God makes us work through a tough situation, God is there with us.  God will not just leave us alone and let us suffer.  God is there with us.  God will help us through the tough situation.  No matter what happens, no matter what we’re going through, no matter how we may feel, God is still there.  God never leaves us.  God’s love never fails.

The letter points out one more thing.  And this may be the most important thing of all.  We are not just told that Jesus endured the cross.  We’re told why.  Jesus did it for the joy that was set before him.

Enduring the cross is one of the hardest things anyone has ever had to do.  What could possibly be the joy that was set before Jesus, that he would find enduring the cross worth it?  Well, I assume it was a couple of things.  

One was simply the joy of knowing He had done what he was sent to earth to do. When the decision was made that Jesus would come to earth as the Messiah, the Savior, Jesus knew what was going to happen.  He knew that he would be born as a baby.  He knew He would grow up the way human beings grow up.  He knew he would then enter into His ministry.  He would teach people.  He would heal people.  He would drive out demons and do miracles.  

But he also knew He would be killed.  He knew He would die a painful, horrible death.  He knew that was the way salvation would come to human beings–through His death on a cross.

            Jesus did not enjoy dying that way.  No one would.  But he still found joy in it.  He found joy in knowing He had been obedient to God the Father, even to the end.  He found joy in knowing He had resisted the temptations of Satan to come down off the cross and take an earthly kingdom.  Jesus did was He was sent here to do, and I would think He found joy in that.

            He also found joy in bringing the chance for salvation to humanity.  Despite everything, Jesus loves us human beings.  And not just as a group–Jesus loves each and every one of us, individually.  Jesus even loved Judas, who betrayed Him.  Jesus even loved the Pharisees, who killed Him.  While hanging on the cross, Jesus asked God the Father to forgive the people who were killing Him.  That’s a pretty awesome love.  And so, to be the one who could bring the chance for salvation to everyone, to be the one through whom our sins can be forgiven, to be the one through whom we can have eternal life in heaven–that had to be an incredible joy for Jesus.  In fact, I suspect that is still a joy for Jesus.  And it makes everything He had to go through more than worth it.

            And that should be an encouragement for us, too.  When you and I have a hard time in this world, we can endure it, too.  We can persevere through it.  We can endure it and persevere through it for the same reasons Jesus endured the cross:  because of the joy that is set before us.  The joy of knowing we are obedient to God.  The joy of knowing we have resisted the temptations of Satan.  The joy of knowing that we have done what God put us here to do–not perfectly, but as best we could.  And the joy of knowing that salvation and eternal life are waiting for us because of what Jesus did for us and because of our faith and belief in Him as the Savior.

            As we enter into the season of Lent, let’s use this time to increase our perseverance.  Let’s run with perseverance the race set before us.  Let’s go through whatever we need to go through, accepting God’s discipline for us.  And let’s endure it with joy, knowing that it’s all more than worth it to receive salvation and eternal life with the Lord in heaven.