Fix Our Eyes on Jesus

(Originally written for Douglas County Publishing: Pastor's Meditation April 24, 2018)

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.(Hebrews 12:1-3)

According to Google, weary is defined as “feeling or showing tiredness, especially as a result of excessive exertion or lack of sleep.”  All of us can probably think of a time, whether now or in the past, when we could identify weariness as part of our lives.  I was on vacation a couple weeks ago in Minneapolis for 5 days, and yet since then I’ve been tired.  Getting back into the groove of normal work, making visits, taking phone calls, trying to help with my kids, dealing with a cold of my own—it’s exhausting to live life with the “normal” responsibilities of being an adult, a husband, a father, and a pastor.

I say that not to just complain or look for pity, but because we ought to know that we are not alone in the exhaustion we feel in our lives.  Throughout this long winter, which I am praying to God we can move on from, many of us are tired.  Those who have had to work outside on farms, as first responders, or on power lines are ready for things to ease up on the physical work they do.  It’s not just the work though; it’s also for some relief from the stress and the mental/emotional fatigue that they’ve had to endure.  Our jobs are not all that we are, and so some of us face tiring circumstances in our family relationships near and far, in our finances, and in other areas of our lives.

For the Christian, the person of faith in Jesus Christ, what do we do?  Do we just suck it up and go on?  Just live life knowing at some point—in a month or two, or a year or few of those, or maybe just when we hit life’s end, then we’ll rest, right?     

This passage in Hebrews has been one that I’ve spoken on at a recent funeral and grade school chapel.  It’s fitting in my personal life right now, and I’m guessing for many of us who might be tired.  “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”  What is in your life right now that you could get rid?  What is in the way, causing you to stumble, to not experience liveliness and joy and rest?  What sins, what things that disrupt from loving God and loving other people, have you not sought the forgiveness of Christ and rid from your life?  Typically when we are at our points of highest stress, we are vulnerable, we are weak, and the devil seeks to do his best work of tearing us down.

In our tiredness, fatigue, and being weary, the work that needs to be done is not just work that we can do on ourselves.  “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus.”  We have to look back to the work that Jesus did in his life, on the cross, rising from death and the grave, and ascending to rule in heaven.  We have to look forward to where he is leading, and what purpose he has in our lives.  We have to fix our eyes on him.  The word in the Greek means to look in such a way that does not get distracted and in a way that trusts.   

Are your eyes fixed on what Jesus has done for you or are they fixed on all the temporary struggles of this day, this month, this year, and this life that you have to deal with?  I’m not saying just ignore everything and everyone around you if you’re weary and tired; stop working; ignore your bank accounts; just read the Bible.  No, that’s not it.  But we are called to see how our faith, the faith authored (began) and perfected (made complete), involves our whole life.  It is our belief that God has a way for us to live that can be found in his word.  It is our belief that the redemption we find in Jesus is such that we can be led out of sin, filled by the Holy Spirit, to better live according to the way that God sets out.  That means that how we spend our time in work and in relationships, in worship and in love, all flows out of our faith.

We will all be weary at some point.  As long as sin is in the world, we are going to experience some degree of the curses we find in Genesis 3:16-17: pain in childbearing and in families, in toilsome work and the sweat of our brow.  Yet we fix our eyes not on the curse and not on other people, but we fix them on Jesus.  He who endured such agony, such betrayal, such humiliation, such weariness when he lived on this earth, look to him “so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”  Find true rest knowing that the most important things of this world have been worked out and are dependent on him.  We may be weary now, but we are not alone.