Hebrews 12:2 “looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Hebrews is often presented as Paul had written it but it is possible it was written by another… one of the things that is usually present in Paul’s letters is that he introduces himself. Letters back then had a different layout than what we do today… Letters today begin with Dear… which names the receiver and ends with who is writing the letter. Roman Letters were still written mostly on Papyrus. Which was basically on one side of the page they wrote across following the way the thin grass went and on the back side they wrote up and down following the way the thin grass was laid… Papyrus used each side of the grass going different directions to make the paper hold. Each sheet could cost up to $4.00 a piece in modern money and for some that would be a month’s salary. It was considered expensive.
Roman letters are rarely dated, which is something we now do. The letters begin with a Greeting from the person writing the letter usually. It would end with Salutations which could name people individually and could be long. Most letters were dictated to a scribe who wrote what the person was saying. The Romans were the first known to have classes in how to write a letter. They had handbooks with examples of how a letter should be written. Paul was very good at following the Roman examples of letter writing. Letter writing took off during Christian era of the Roman Empire with 30% of the population being able to read and write during classical Greece there was only a 10% the population that could read and write.
What does this have with this scripture? Not much but it gives you an idea how precious these letters were to the people receiving them. In this case the letter was sent to the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem because of the recent turmoil between the Jews and the Roman Empire. The writer is trying to give them hope, courage, and faith to continue in their Christian’s lives.
The writer in this verse is first saying Jesus is the creator of their faith, and it is to him that the Jewish Christians need to remember to be faithful. He goes on to say to them that Jesus felt the depth of joy for what He endured, the shame, the pain, the degradation, and now sits at the right hand of God. They need to remember that joy and remember who Jesus is. He will go on and tell them not to grow weary and to stand fast in their faith.
But what does this mean for today?
There are more and more people who do not believe in Jesus as the Son of God. Many of them are hostile to Christians not in that they personal attack Christians they know but attack their faith. Many are more open about their lack of faith. Sadly, some of these attacks on Christians in general deserve for even though Jesus warned us of being judgmental (meaning to condemn people), we often voice our judgements on others. We fail to pay attention to the warning that how we judge will be how we are judged.
What happens due to all of this, there are more attacks on Christians. It is easy to fall away as those attacks add up. What we are to do is to remember what Jesus did for us… he suffered on that cross so that all people can find God through Him. We need to live our lives as witnesses for Christ, and that means acting in kindness and in patience. It means sharing the joy of our faith and not our judgements on others. It means being gentle with others.
How can we stand firm? We begin our day with prayer. We pray all through the day. We end our day with prayer. When we are weak, we pray for God to give us strength, and when needed rest. We must allow God to change us so that the way we were when we came to Christ is not the person we are today and in five years we should be even better.
Today’s Question…
How do you honor Jesus with your life?
Ever in Christ’s love,
Mary Elizabeth Todd
March 5, 2024 & July 12, 2024
Ruhamah United Methodist Church Bible Verses 