Pastor's Point: Eyes on the Prize

Have you ever wondered why people start every new year resolving to make certain changes, only to abandon those plans and quickly return to their original state of being?  I can’t speak for everyone, but in my experience it has a lot to do with a lack of one particular commodity—perseverance. 

Like some of you, I’m a great starter.  I like trying new things.  I especially like talking about trying new things.  At times, I even like taking risks.  But then something happens.  I meet opposition to my plans.  I encounter difficulty.  I get sidetracked.  And eventually, what started as an awesome idea quickly winds up on a pile of good intentions.

Imagine, if you will, the resolution that was placed before Jesus, God’s Son, as he entered his earthly life. Way back in Eden’s garden when the first batch of humans decided to blow the best deal ever and long before Frank Sinatra ever uttered “I did it my way” for the very first time, these creatures decided to break ranks with their Maker.  God’s judgment was swift, expelling them from their utopian lifestyle, but even worse, giving them nothing less than what they asked for: a life separate from Him.  But God’s mercy was too great to leave man with no options. And right there He promised to make right again what we had screwed up.  In that moment, His resolution was made clear. To the Satanic serpent who deceived His beloved, He said:

I will cause hostility between you and the woman (Eve),
and between your offspring and her offspring (Jesus).
He (My Son) will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

In my darker moments, I imagine a heavenly conversation where Jesus quickly retorts, “Easy for you to say, Dad.”  In fact, scripture never gives even the hint of a dispute between the Father and the Son regarding this plan.  Such was the level of trust and love between the two.  What we are told is that Jesus willingly took up the task, emptied himself (now there’s a theological discussion for you), and accepted the greatest rescue mission ever assigned. Paul writes in Philippians 2:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God

 something to be used to his own advantage; rather,

he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!

We’ve all heard the clichés.  “Keep your nose to the grindstone.” “Quitters never win and winners never quit.” But faced with this particular assignment, one can only ask “how did He do it?” Our culture is so quick to assign “hero” status to anyone who, in the face of injustice or adversity, casts fate to the wind and charges into the fray, regardless of its effects on one’s personal well-being.  But here’s the thing.  These decisions are often instinctive, made in either a moment of calamity or as part of a short term scheme or strategy to right a great wrong.

What puts Jesus, his incarnation, life, suffering and ultimate death in such a completely different category from other heroic acts is this: he lived, breathed, and focused on his mission from the moment His human mind could handle conceptual thinking.  As a child, He was taught the Torah, the first five books of what we today call the Bible.  He also learned the Psalms and became familiar with all the prophetical writings made available to Him, including the passages He would quote from Isaiah 61 to inaugurate his ministry, as well as the ones which described in graphic detail his eventual death in Isaiah 52 and 53.  And yet, He stayed the course.  Why?  The writer to the Hebrews proposes this as the reason in chapter 12:

…Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,

fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.

  For the joy set before him he 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 sinners,

so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

And what exactly was the “joy” that was set before Him?  The same writer records in an earlier chapter:

But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while,

now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death,

so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God,

for whom and through whom everything exists,

should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. 

Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. 

So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.

What was the so-called “prize” on which Jesus kept His eyes for thirty-three years as a human being, and eons before as Creator of all that is seen and unseen?  You and me.  We were the prize.  You are the prize.  I am the prize.

So make your resolutions and maybe even break your resolutions.  But start 2014 with the deepest sense of gratitude for the One who kept His eyes on the prize…and never looked back.        

tad