So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong. Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord. Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many. Make sure that no one is immoral or godless like Esau, who traded his birthright as the firstborn son for a single meal. You know that afterward, when he wanted his father’s blessing, he was rejected. It was too late for repentance, even though he begged with bitter tears.
Hebrews 12:12-17
You may wonder about my title for this Gem. I know the author has used the words hands, knees and feet, but in meditating on what he has written the thought struck me that we need to hang on with fingers, knees and toes. I am sure it is apparent to you that the passage continues on from what went before it. I have already told you that we need to keep it together (this passage) when we are keeping it together (hang in there). Sometimes it is like that in life. We reach the end of our ability to cope and we just need to keep it together. I am sure that is what the people of Northland, Coromandel and Hawkes Bay here in New Zealand are doing this week. We have seen unbelievable shots on TV of such devastation as a result of a massive flooding and slips with whole communities washed away in areas where you would not have imagined it possible. Given those background images I find myself thinking of the reactions of Christians finding themselves in extreme circumstances as a result of their faith in Jesus Christ.
This not as random as it may seem. Remember the author of the letter is talking to Jewish Christians facing the onslaught of Nero’s persecution. He is talking to those dear brothers and sisters in the faith and encouraging them to hang in there despite all they have been through. Now he writes “So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.” That is a curious statement which reminded me of the kids song ‘Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes.’ I had noticed that the author had focused on hands, knees and feet. He was encouraging his fellow Jews by asking them to strengthen their extremities in order to continue on in the race.
I started thinking about about a time when I was in Sokcho as director of WBTNZ for a conference in this northern city in the mountains of South Korea. It was suggested that we might like to climb up to the Geumganggul Prayer Cave which was at the end of short walk amid the beauty of the forest in the area. It was indeed delightful. Then we arrive below the climb looking up; there were 800+ steps to negotiate to the cave. I was nearing 50 (years not steps) and was not as fit as what I had been as a tournament tennis player. But I wasn’t going to be defeated. Sometimes you just have to dig your toes in and go for it which a group of us did. I guts it out to make it up there and finally reached the cave. Oh we took a break of a few minutes now and then but we got there. We took in the view, spent a short time praying and then embarked on the homeward descent. I am sorry I don’t have any photos of that time because back then I didn’t have a cell phone in my pocket, but I am sure you can Google it. Besides, I am not wanting to impress with the grandeur of the scene, I am focused as was the writer of Hebrews on the homeward stretch to the goal.
The downward journey was in some ways worse than the climb up. It was without the burning sense in the lungs of sucking in a breath at altitude as we climbed, but on the descent it was the feeling in my fingers, knees and toes as I went down the same number of steps in reverse. I had a suspect knee due to an old tennis injury and I distinctly remember those three parts of my anatomy hurting in the quest to get down again: my fingers, knees and toes. My knees were indeed getting shaky on the descent. I was tired after the climb and my knees began to shake more with each step downward. I found myself summoning fingers on the railing, as well as knees and toes into action to get my body down again without toppling forward on the steep stairs.
There are times in life when that is exactly what we have to do. There is much debate among the commentators as to whether the writer of Hebrews was picking up the race analogy again or not; I believe he was. He was encouraging these Christians to hang in there to the end and having done all to stand against the onslaught of persecution to stand firm once more. Thus he looks to close this challenge to them with a call to grip with their tired hands, strengthen their shaky knees and press on in a straight run to the finish. Why? So that you, yourself, get there? Not only, but so that you take as many others with you in the run to the finish. Interestingly the hands are described as [pariēmi] and the knees are [paraluō] which some translate as feeble, helpless or unconnected hands and with knees that are paralysed, feeble or non-functioning. Leaving some to muse as to whether these are knees and hands damaged by torture. Make the way straight and even (without obstacles) for those who are [chōlos] limping, lame or crippled. Are you getting the picture?
The writer is not talking about strengthening yourself and hanging in there, but ensuring that those who are impaired or injured as a result of this struggle you collectively have been through make it as well. For the last week I have seen images on TV of those rescued from the floods and landslides etc. I gain the same sense in reading these words in Hebrews. Those of us whose faith is still intact and strong after severe testing are to rally around those in the body of Christ who are feeble, frail and suffering in a supreme effort to see them make it as well. It is not just a matter of you crawling over the finish line but you seeing to it that those beside you who are weak, frail and beaten up in the struggle make it as well. Yes we need to pay attention to our own spiritual growth and reassurance of all that God has promised us in Jesus Christ. But that is not all, we need to care for the ones who are struggling and even fallen by the wayside alongside us, or behind us.
“Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Work at living the life exemplified by Christ and in harmony with everyone.” Rather than taking offence or causing bitterness to rise up in you which then infects the body and brings disharmony, not your body but the body of Christ; do the human(e) thing and look after those around you so as many as possible reach the goal of the Eternal Life. As in the physical natural world when human empathy comes to the fore, so too, if not more so, in the spiritual. Take the time to reach out a hand to a fallen comrade.
Yes, I haven’t dealt with the example of Esau yet. That is still to come.
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming — WOW, What a Ride! (Written as a eulogy for John King – a Wycliffe colleague)
Jonathan Prosser
How do you want to arrive in heaven?
a) Serenely with not a hair ruffled
b) By the skin of your teeth with hair singed
c) Sliding into home base like John King?
Ian
Think about it seriously. It’s your life and a statement of how you have lived it. Do you slip in quietly so no one will notice, or take as many with you as you can? Including picking up the ones who have fallen.
Ian
God never promises to remove us from our struggles. He does promise to change the way we look at them.
Max Lucado