"...who for the joy set before Him..."

Hey all!
On Sunday mornings we’re going through the book of Hebrews, what a rich book! We’re just getting into chapter twelve, and that is where my devotion time started this morning, specifically verses 1 & 2.

1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2)

Just an FYI, the “cloud of witnesses” that Paul is referring to are all those saints mentioned in chapter 11. He doesn’t mean that they are up on a cloud watching and praying for us, he means that we are basically in good company.

In verse 2 it says; “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” I never really understood what it meant when he says; “...who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross...” My bible study notes says; “His attention was not on the agonies of the Cross, but on the crown; not on the suffering, but the reward.”

I immediately flashed on two scenes from the movie “The Passion of The Christ” one is where Jesus begins to carry His (our) Cross, but before He takes it onto His shoulders, it’s almost seems as though He embraces it first. Then the other scene is where Jesus has made it up to Golgatha, the cross is laid down, and if you look closely, it appears that Jesus is eager to crawl unto the cross and get into position; He knows that the time has come AND He knows what awaits Him when this is all over.

I thought about the fact that Jesus was on this earth for some 33 years, I think we sometimes forget how hard that must have been for Him at times. We think of the Sermon on the Mount, we think of the miracles, we think of His relationship with His disciples, but what about the times when He was alone praying to His heavenly Father, when He would reflect on the fact that this was not His home, that He left His home, He left His throne, He left warmth and comfort of His Father to come here, to endure cold, to endure heat, to see the decline and depravity of what God, and Himself had created here on earth. He was spit on, cussed at, laughed at, attacked physically, tempted in every way yet without sin.

He came here for one single reason, but how many times in when He was alone did He ask The Father if it was time, and The Father said “Not yet my Son!”? The human side of Him might have cried out from time to time; “Abba! Abba! Look what they are doing to Your Son! Listen to what they are saying about Me! I have no place to lay My head tonight, I have no food for tomorrow Abba!” And again, how many times might The Father have said; “Be patient my Son, I AM with you! I AM your bread of life. You will be with Me soon, and will never have to go through this again. ‘You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier’” for just a little while longer.

Jesus was fully God and fully man while He was on this earth, may we never forget the humanness of Him and the suffering He endured for us. May we never forget, that when we go through hard times on this earth, Jesus tells us what The Father may have told Him during His time here;

“You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier.”
“I will never leave you nor forsake you!”
“Be still and know that I AM God!”

In HIS Grip
Tony