What exactly is a “witness”? The word is used in two ways in modern English.
The first use describes a person who simply observes something. It means you were an onlooker as an event occurred. It might be used in a sentence like this: I was a witness to Saturday’s football game.
The second use is found in a legal setting, in which someone signs as a witness to a notarized document, testifying to the validity of a signature. Better yet is the actual witness who provides testimony in a court of law. An example might go like this: I was a witness in a murder trial.
In Hebrews 12, we have a unique statement. After spending an entire chapter listing a number of well-known Bible characters who exhibited faith as well as alluding to other anonymous individuals who lived by faith, the Hebrew writer says the following:
“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.” Heb 12:1-3
When you consider the previous post “Moralism for the Masses“, it is ironic that today this author heard a sermon in which the speaker very eloquently explained how this Hebrews passage alludes to a great host of the faithful who have passed-on and who serve as examples for our emulation. In another dimension, they look down on us as witnesses to our own struggles in living Christian lives. Like spectators along the sidelines of a spiritual marathon, they watch us and shout, “We did it! You can do it! Don’t give up!” We also see Jesus Himself standing at the finish line, urging us to complete the race.
Is this really what is being taught here? In all the New Testament, the word “witness” or “witnesses” is almost always a reference to those who “bear witness”.
Is there anything in the Hebrews 12 passage that suggests all the faithful from history can see us? Is the writer really suggesting they are “observers” of our lives? From the context and a rather common sense exegesis of this text, the answer is clearly “no”. It’s the second definition above – somebody who testifies to something, not somebody who observes an event.
What we have in Hebrews 12 is not a great cheer-leading team in the clouds. It’s all the faithful from the past who are “witnesses” testifying to something. What is it they testify to? Better yet, who are they testifying about? The answer is in the context. Because of these witnesses, we are told to endure hardship also, “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…” .
Can we look at their examples of faith? Yes. Should we? Yes. We can draw encouragement from these stories, but their real purpose is not to give us moral support. We are to look upon the one they bear witness to, the one to whom they point us. We look upon Jesus. The sitting Jesus. The Jesus who completed His work of justification. They testify of Him; and He is so much more than the “head cheerleader” urging us to finish the race. He ran the race for us – the one we couldn’t run on our own, and He has already made the victory ours through His sacrifice and our faith.
All the cheers of the faithful are of no value compared to the comfort of knowing Jesus won the race for all of us. It is this confidence that motivates us to press on, to endure to the end.
Which sounds better: “You can do it!” or “Have faith – I have done it for you!”?
Which motivates you more to action: Grit and determination or gratitude?
Think about it. That’s what Hebrews 11 and 12 is all about.
