There is a real pearl of great price in this verse of Scripture, even beyond the fact that it was in this completely selfless act of love and sacrifice that Jesus brought to us the opportunity to have eternal salvation, if we put our faith in him and what he accomplished for us by enduring the cross!
For the purpose of today’s thought, I want to focus in on this part of the verse…”For the joy set before him…..he endured.”
Endurance or, in using the verb tense, endure, is an act of the will. It entails perservering, withstanding or continuing on in the face of great difficulty to see a situation through, to the end. In order to willingly, even purposefully, endure something painful or extremely difficult, there must be a hope or a “joy set before….” the one enduring. We’ve all heard of people enduring terrible pain from injuries and weeks with little food or water while waiting to be rescued from a plane crash or after getting lost in a snow storm…some have even had to endure the unfathomable pain of severing one of their own limbs to free themselves from being pinned so they could have a chance of being rescued! These brave souls found the power to endure as they thought of the lives they wanted to continue back home, loved ones...and having those joys set before them, they endured! How about those we have known who, while steadily moving toward a sure and painful death, due to a cruel and unrelenting, terminal illness, maintained a peace and courage as they looked toward the hope of a pain-free and beautiful heaven awaiting them? It’s that joy set before them! Are you with me, now? :-D
Now, let me switch gears a little bit and bring a far less worthy example than the cross Jesus carried for your sins and mine so that he could experience the joy of offering salvation to a lost and broken world, or the admirable examples of the suffering of human kind as discussed above, and bring it down to a simple analogy that I experience in my daily life.
The aspect I want to address here is one of endurance, as a noun or character trait. As a person who makes fitness a daily part of my life, I can relate to developing this trait of endurance and it doesn't just happen!
Friends, you can be sure the winner of any long distance race has established a well worn path down the trail of endurance and it has included a heaping dose of self-denial and and an iron will of determination. She has experienced plenty of aching joints and muscles, along the way, during many long runs, come sunshine or rain. She’s eaten the right foods to fuel her body, like a fine tuned engine, and mentally prepared for the long race, ahead, with one thought in mind…to win the prize. It took time to cultivate this package of preparation and build the level of endurance that wins a race. She didn’t just show up the day of the marathon and decide to run 26 miles! I know - ridiculous, right? But we try it in so many ways! We ask God to give us “spirituality,” microwave style, we want our thought life to just be “fixed” and our emotions to be “healed” without a lot of effort and we are forgetting our example, the Lord Jesus Christ, “….Who for the joy set before him, endured…” Do you think he experienced less of the pain of the cross than the full measure our sin demanded? Do you think he was immune to the feeling of being spat upon and mocked? The passage says he despised the shame. When that verse tells us he endured, my sisters, he ENDURED the cross, FULLY. He paid the penalty, pain and shame of carrying your cross and mine.
When we want to experience the joy set before us, whatever that joy is, be it spiritual growth, financial freedom from debt, a godly marriage, the comfort of knowing our children are well equipped to make their own choices to endure and walk in what they know is right, (they do have a will and a choice to make, remember) ….in any of these and more scenarios, endurance is right there, front and center! Spiritual maturity doesn’t happen without the discipline of time and the response of obedience, financial freedom from debt takes self discipline in making purchases, a concentrated focus and a healthy dose of self-denial to reach that joy set before us - the day when we are debt free. Alright – all the single ladies :-D, I dare to speak on this matter as it has been a hard learned lesson for me in my 8 years since my divorce but, if we want a godly marriage, it begins when we are single! If we can commit to sexual purity in our dating relationships, one of the hardest won battles for singles, he will bless us when the time is right! Trying to raise our children to do what is right means, at times, we must endure their displeasure with us when we say no or refuse to compromise what we know is right for them. We endure their anger or misunderstanding for the joy set before us that, later, there will be fruit and reward in their lives and ours. When Jesus went to the cross, he had to look ahead to the joy. His knowing what joy was to come sustained him as he endured that most horrible cross. The joy of the resurrection and the salvation brought to so many, by his willingness to endure, was worth it all!
Have you determined what the joys are that you have set before you or do you need to set some joys before you? You know I will refer back to the 4 areas of growth (new readers see archived blogs to the left) by now. :-D Endurance will be a part of those joys becoming a reality.
We are human and we will weaken, at times. That is why we need each other. When Jesus prayed in the garden, before going to the cross, he was upset that his disciples kept falling asleep. He, choosing to clothe himself in human flesh, for our sakes, needed their comfort and care during his most trying hour. As he prayed, knowing what was to come, he asked the Father, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me….nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.” He did not WANT to go to the cross. He knew how painful and shameful it would be. But he was willing to endure it for the great joy that was to come. We don't want to endure hardship but, if we can set the joys to come before our spiritual eyes, we can endure!
Can we pray for endurance? God will bless our lives as we give ourselves to him and he sets before us joys untold! Believe it!
Come back, soon! I'm praying for you.
Still Climbing,
Cher
