Hebrews 12:2

Hebrews 12:2

Let us notice

I. What Christ endured.

II. Why He endured it.

III. The lessons that endurance teaches.

I. The sorrows of Jesus. What Christ endured crucifixion. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Jesus laid down His life for His foes! Christ had endured much for mankind before He suffered on the Holy Rood. But His other pains and sorrows fade away before the agonies of His crucifixion, even as the stars turn pale and then vanish before the overpowering light of the sun. He endured for the joy of saving souls; endured, not with the dogged callousness of the Stoic who despises his fellow-creatures, but by reason of a love that triumphed over every feeling of pain, of shame, and of sorrow. For the joy that was set before Him He endured all this.

II. Why Christ suffered; why Christ endured it. It was for the joy that was set before Him, and that joy consisted in doing good to others. It was because by this suffering Jesus redeemed mankind. It was to save men from the punishment and the power of sin. Like all true heroes, Jesus was preeminently unselfish. He had nothing to gain save the love of humanity. His joy was purely unselfish. He suffered, not to gain wealth, or renown, or power, but simply and solely to redeem mankind, to carry out to the last that obedience to the Father by which the many are made righteous. He suffered because He was obedient to the voice of conscience. There was nothing of the ascetic in Jesus. An ascetic voluntarily, purposely, goes out of the way to make himself miserable. Not so Jesus. He was preeminently the Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. But all His sorrows met Him in the path of duty. He heroically endured the shame and ignominy of the Crucifixion (a more degrading death than hanging with us), despising its shame, for the joy that was set before Him the joy of redeeming the world.

III. The lessons of endurance. It teaches professing Christians to be ready to endure the cross of self-denial, and despise the shame that the world heaps on the faithful disciple of the Lord. It appeals to every sinner, with matchless eloquence, to be a follower of the self-denying Jesus. Plato and Socrates were noble leaders for Athens in the paths of virtue, but Athens perished. She could not be saved by her one or two great men, for the mass of the people were utterly corrupt. So, too, the greatness of our fatherland depends not on one or two great men, but on the masses being brought to Jesus Christ and led to take up the cross of self-denial for His sake.

F. W. Aveling, Christian World Pulpit, Dec. 21st, 1892.

References: Hebrews 12:2 . A. Maclaren, Christ in the Heart, pp. 77, 91; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. v., No. 236; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 180; E. Cooper, Practical Sermons, vol. ii., p. 207; Bishop Ryle, Church of England Pulpit, vol. vii., p. 142; A. Raleigh, Christian World Pulpit, vol. i., p. 495; R. Tuck, Ibid., vol. v., p. 132; H. Wonnacott, Ibid., vol. xvi., p. 392; W. Page, Ibid., vol. xxv., p 374; L. D. Bevan, Ibid., vol. xxx., p. 200; Clergyman's Magazine, vol. iv., p. 84.