Early this morning (Sunday, September 1) the Lord laid upon my heart these words, “You have not yet resisted to bloodshed”. Why? I don’t know. Was it something I recently read or heard? No. After I eventually woke up an hour or so later and then wiped the sleepiness from my eyes, I looked up those words to discover them in Hebrews 12:4.
The Book of Hebrews is a very diverse book. We have encouragement, we have challenge, we have reminders of the past, and a hope for the future. As with the various letters from Paul, Peter, John, etc., these are one continuous writing with no chapter and page breaks. And often, specifically in Hebrews, in order to get the meaning of one chapter (to go back to our modern version of the Bible), one sometimes has to go back to the previous chapter as there are transitional words we see in the first verse to bring the verses into context.
From the previous chapters we read flow of competition, heroes of faith, and word pictures delivered, the writer swings from an eternal or future perspective (Hebrews 12:1) of why we do this, he dives into the a number of subsequent verses of chapter 12 about being chastened by the Lord with an odd transition in verse four. And to be completely honest, all day long I struggled with trying to understand why this verse was even in there. If it were eliminated, it would not jeopardize context or flow. But this verse on its own, unlike others that perhaps could be explained if they were on their own, makes no sense whatsoever. I looked at various modern translations and then English languages of the Greek and Vulgate to try to understand what and why this verse (and why the Lord pressed it upon my heart first thing in the morning).
After studying it and doing some digging and coming up rather empty. One commentary said this was verse of bloodshed is in reference to Jesus on the cross; I can see applicable and perhaps it is that and yet with the many Bible translations, nothing is clear to say plainly Jesus died on the cross so suck it up that you may bleed, too. But with another credible commentary that used the idea of competition and strength conditioning, the Holy Spirit reminded me of a story shared by Pastor Richard Rubi from either 27 or 28 years ago during a San Antonio Bible conference. I also came across the story in detail a year or two later while reading a book titled “Fox’s Book of Christian Martyrs” about the man named Telemachus. With effort tonight, I rediscovered this man’s short biography.
So with the Lord’s help, I will try to tie all these pieces together to understand what the writer was getting at (note, I am NOT saying that his book of Hebrews was written after this preacher died hundreds of years later as per it being the inspiration; this simply serves as the example as to why God reminded me of this man from a bible conference that I heard many years ago). We can also tie in Jesus on the cross in reference to the shedding of blood, but I would like to take it a bitter further or deeper because the writer should had made it clearer about that.
Although we ought to start with chapter one, let us dive into chapter ten to be quickly brought up to speed and flow towards chapter twelve and why it challenges its reader that there are reasons why we live a Christian life. Our life is not flat or with no depth of understanding, but there are layers and even parallels (such as prophecies or foreshadowing of eternity) including an adjustment for perspective to help a struggling church who has not only left its heathen beliefs, but also is dealing with pressures of sin and temptations along with pressure from family disowning one another for accepting Jesus rather than Roman/Greek/Jewish traditions (even if there is a muddying of the waters of these) and then the persecution of the church not only by the Jews but even a stronger attack by the Romans (more specifically, Nero) for those who wish to believe that there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5) rather than it being Nero who operates by the will of Jupiter or Zeus. Christians are to understand that our life is not based on the physical or temporary but we live unto Christ and Heaven and because of that, we can understand (with God’s help) that there is another perspective. And because of this higher or spiritual perspective, we can see things as God sees them. We see that there is right and wrong, love and hate, good and evil, and those who live by it (despite it having a human face) are agents operating under the will of Satan. To which in Hebrews 11 we need to understand that the promises and will of God cannot be seen or natural, but something wholly dependent (like a child’s love, trust/dependance upon a parent; see my previous and recent writing of Beyond Belief) to know that when God speaks (directly or indirectly) that we can put our full assurance upon. Our Christian walk, our marriage and families, our ministry, our occupations are how we carry out His plans that even if things don’t or won’t make sense or won’t be rewarded now, there is heaven with eternal reward and understanding.
And because of this and with how chapter 12 begins, we need to remember that there are these cloud of witnesses (I wrote about that April 28, 2021 titled The Race and I won’t spend time to reiterate that, so please read it) who are expecting us to finish our course or lane assignment. How we can do that is to lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us. Two ways to view this and I believe both are correct. First when I used to be good at running, I couldn’t afford ankle weights or any kind of resistance stuff when I was in track. My training came from me doing things with no budget. So while training I wore my regular school or street shoes which are heavier than long-distance track shoes. So when—coupled with also lifting weights with my legs to strengthen them—I would take off these heavier shoes to compete with light-weight shoes, my feet would feel like they were flying because now I had no resistance to slow me down any. Another way to look at it also occurred at a track meet that same year I was doing that training. A schoolmate a grade above me who was running mid-distance got tangled up with other runners who also liked to do a little pushy-shove and as a result he fell onto the lane. The track was covered with tiny and very sharp red rocks that cut into his skin like shards of glass. Couple that cutting and pain with the other runners running on top of him with their metal-spiked running shoes, he was bleeding all over and we had to carry him off the track. The analogy I am going at is being tripped up—either by other runners or someone from the side pulling us out of the race—that gets us at least distracted to worse disqualified.
So with this track or events occurring at an event—we will say for this writings’ sake a coliseum or an arena—I wish to now tie in that story of Telemachus. Regardless of what was going on in the Christian world, there were still wars and fighting going on to occupy land and/or to take over from one leader/emperor to another. Along with that we have anti-Christian, anti-Jew, and anti-Moor beliefs going on. And so with the various attacks, in times of victory and celebration people would blow off steam by having competitions of strength or endurance. After all, this is the time of gladiators, wild beasts, etc. that started out as semi-play acting (like wrestling on television) but as time went on, they got more aggressive. And after defeating the Goths, people flocked to the 50,000 seated arena to watch gladiators fight one another…the same arena that a number of years prior also had Christians burned, killed by weapons, or killed by wild animals. And when restraint gets removed, people get more bloodthirsty. So we have a combat of winner-take all and instead of one-on-one combatants, it was just a free for all with multiple fighters just fighting each other at the same time. And in dives-in Telemachus who tries to be heard and tries to stop the fight, preaches that this is wrong and to repent. The crowd yells, “Sedition! Sedition! Down with him! This is not place for preaching! The old customs of Rome must be observed! On, gladiators!” With valiant effort, Telemachus tries to preach and push aside the combatants who eventually had enough of this intrusion. One of the gladiators thrust a sword into Telemachus while spectators hurled stones from their seats at him. Eventually he died. The story goes that because of this man’s courage and a heart of God’s love, Rome was shocked. Because of that man’s effort, blood was never shed in that arena and all gladiatorial battles were banned.
So let us now thread these pieces together. Why did Jesus go to the cross? Why did Jesus challenge us to take up our cross (again, a recent writing)? What is our attitude be in living to and for Jesus? Is it one of defeat? Is it one of pride and self-reliance? Not but because God so loved that He gave, Jesus joyfully (it may not had looked like that at the time) went to the cross knowing that through what He was to do and endure made a way. Because we are to take up our cross, not just surface-level parting away sins or bad habits but to allow God to truly change our character, to expose those layers of our “onion skinned” hearts to expose the real issues, to then for what? Rather to who? Yes, to Jesus, but to serve as a living testimony that we live for Jesus. That we are willing to live a life—a Christian life—a certain way…a different way in front of others, that it may take bloodshed (think of the athlete stepped on and Telemachus)—who may have to take stands with/against the flesh, sin, temptation, Satan, the world; both in temptations and attacks/persecution. Why? Why go through all that? A phrase goes, “the proof is in in the pudding”. Christianity isn’t real to a world who thinks that their sinful or life absent of God is good (or better) without the world seeing that not just in times of good but also in times of testing and endurance, that we truly believe and live unto Jesus. That (as Hebrews 12 continues) some of these matters is how God will grind out things in our lives. For a diamond to be made better than a chunk of rock, it has to roll around in tumblers that will beat and rub off things that shouldn’t be there. Although we like to lift verses five and on as a completely different matter of godly spanking that God wants to punish us for sin but when in this flow of context as the author intended, God will use whatever means necessary to prepare and purify our lives. We sing that song, “purify my heart, let me be as gold and precious silver…refiners fire, my heart’s desire…” when in reality the only persecution or trouble we face (or will gladly face) is we got a speeding ticket on the way to an outreach or we cannot find our keys when we are in a hurry to go to church services. But God will use any means He deems necessary, even if it requires a little cutting or pain. Why? Because He loves us, yes. But so we can grow and be made more right (or perfected) unto God. “Now this, ‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:27-29)