Get A (New) Grip: Hearing God Through Hebrews 12
Apr 1, 2007 Palm Sunday
Intro:
Not so long ago, late last fall, I felt like I wanted to quit. It was a Sunday morning, and I was sitting right over there where usually sit, and it was during our time of worship through song, and I sat there feeling completely empty. Discouraged. Weary. And wanting to give up.
I looked around at you, my friends and brothers and sisters in Christ, and my deep love for all of you made me want to quit even more, because I want you to have a better pastor then me. Someone better able to care, and nurture, someone better able to make our church grow and reach out to a world that is hurting and dying, someone who could inspire and motivate and rally us to “go into all the world and make disciples”.
And so I did the only thing I could think of, I poured those feelings out to God. My prayer, as we sang songs of worship, was “Jesus, help! I need You, I need to know this is worth it, I need to be filled, encouraged, and I need You. Help, please.”
We started singing some song, I don’t remember which one, but it was about the cross, and us being at the cross, and so I imagined myself being there, and continued to ask Jesus to meet me. And as I prayed and sang, imagining myself kneeling at the foot of the cross with my head bowed low in discouragement, I saw in my imagination a pair of feet come and stand next to me. And then a hand reached down, it was a brown hand, and it was open and reaching towards me. I imagined myself grabbing hold, and this hand grabbed hold of mine with a strong grip and helped me to my feet, and I looked at this man and I knew in my heart that it was a Bolivian man.
Then, of course, our worship time ended and I had to get myself together so that I could share the message… but it was the beginning of the answer to my prayer. It felt like a promise, and it was enough to keep me going a little longer.
A Strange Intro?
Does that seem like a strange introduction to a Palm Sunday sermon? Palm Sunday – the day of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, with the crowds welcoming the Messiah, shouting praises, a moment of victory, right? “Hosanna! Hosanna!” Jesus the King, entering His Kingdom. Shouldn’t I begin a Palm Sunday sermon with some great inspiring story of victory and celebration?
Maybe. Some years, definitely. But as I look at the story in the broader context, knowing what comes next (namely, the crucifixion), it is a story with some bitter irony. I see some similarities between the struggle I felt, and how Jesus felt.
In Luke 9:51 (NKJV) it says, “Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.” It’s a picture of Jesus gritting His teeth, and choosing to go. On the way into Jerusalem, while the crowds were shouting their praises, Luke reports: “Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it.” (Luke 19:41 NLT). When Jesus arrives, John tells us about the conversation that comes next where Jesus says, “27 “Now my soul is deeply troubled. Should I pray, ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But this is the very reason I came! 28 Father, bring glory to your name.” (John 12:27-28 NLT).
Struggle:
Every single one of us has had to struggle. I shared my story, we looked at Jesus’ story, you know your story. There are things, situations, relationships, that are a struggle. Sometimes, they become overwhelming and we feel like quitting, we want to pray “Father, save us from this hour”, we want to throw in the towel. It is hard, it is work, it is draining, and in a culture that has a pill or a product that promises to bring change in an instant, we sometimes wonder what is possibly wrong with us, that we should have these struggles.
Heb 12:12-13
The chapter we have been studying this Lent season speaks directly to our feeling like we want to give up in the face of struggle, and here is what it says: “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.” (Heb 12:12-13 NLT)
These are two mighty powerful verses. Are you facing a struggle at work? “get a new grip”. A struggle with some teacher at school, or a group of friends, and you’d love to just run away? “get a new grip”. A struggle in your marriage, or with your children, or with some close friend that has let you down, “get a new grip”.
Hold on. Hang in there. Grit your teeth, set your face, take a deep breath, and hang on. I think that is what Jesus did on Palm Sunday. Knowing what was before Him, knowing it was going to be an incredibly hard struggle, He choose to “take a new grip with tired hands”.
Because of one great fact: Jesus knew what was on the other side of the struggle.
For me, and likely for you, one of the casualties during times of struggle is my ability to see beyond the current situation. To look past the problem, to focus on the other side of the difficulty. The problem of the moment looms large, and it takes hard work to keep looking beyond the problem or struggle in front of my face and to see how great it will be to keep struggling until the situation or relationship or difficulty is resolved.
Jesus knew that – “for the joy set before Him endured the cross” (that is the first part of Heb 12, which we’ll look at next week). We see it here right at the end of vs 13, to “become strong”.
Why get a new grip? Why hold on? Why strengthen weak knees? Because it is infinitely worth it. It is worth it to keep struggling.
Whose Hands and Feet?
As I looked at this verse, my first impression was it is a “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” kind of verse. Like it is for us, as individual people, to heal ourselves – on our own. “take a new grip with YOUR tired hands and strengthen YOUR weak knees.”
But then I dug a little deeper. The author of Hebrews is actually quoting Isaiah 35:3: “With this news, strengthen those who have tired hands, and encourage those who have weak knees. (Isaiah 35:3 NLT)”
That is a little different, yes? This is a verse about helping others, this is a verse about encouraging others, this is a verse about community.
So what does Heb 12:12 actually say? Literally, it says this: “therefore, the hanging down hands and the feeble knees, lift up.” We could interpret that either way – as meaning our own hands and knees or others’ hands and knees. Different translations make different choices. Let me tell you what I believe: it is both. “the” hands and “the” knees – doesn’t matter whether we decide they are our own or those of others – if they are hanging down, lift them up. If they are feeble, strengthen them.
Sometimes, people come to me for counsel. They need help with some struggle, and so we meet together. My experience is this: most often, it takes both to make a difference. If people come to me to “get their problems solved”, I’m not going to be much help. They must want to “take a new grip” and “strengthen their weak knees”. The flip side is also true: if people never share their struggles, most often they continue in them – often becoming deeper and more depressing (and harder to get out of). The point is this: it takes both.
Make Straight Paths:
Verse 13 continues, and here the emphasis is more clearly on our role in helping one another. “Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.”
How many of you like to go hiking? When you are out walking or hiking in nature, how often do you come across paths that are straight and level? How many non-man-made “wheelchair accessible” paths have you seen?
Here is the point: straight paths take immense work. If there is a tree, the natural path goes around – the straight path cuts it down and pulls out the stump and the root ball and fills up the hole. If there is a valley, the natural path goes down the one side and then climbs back up the next – the straight path builds a bridge. If there is a huge boulder in the middle of the forest, the natural path goes around while the straight path gets 30 strong people to lift and roll it out of the way.
Why go to all that effort? “So that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.” We go to that effort for one another – because of our love for one another, we cut down trees, build bridges, move boulders, so that the weak can become strong. So that their journey can be completed.
As a church, we have chosen to be that kind of community. The “strong” among us refuse to run on ahead, leaving everyone else to get past the obstacles on their own or stay behind. We choose instead to put relationships of love ahead of every consideration, to go together down this path of life, to struggle together and work together and to do all of this because we are following Jesus, who commands us to look at the hanging-down arms and the weak knees, and lift them up.
How Does This Apply?
1. To you if you are in a season of struggle: maybe as I talked about those times of struggle earlier, you felt “exactly my life right now.” Maybe you are tired, maybe you want to quit like I did. You feel like you are at the end of the rope and barely hanging on. To you, the verse says this: “take a new grip”. Resolve to triumph over the struggle. Look up, not down. And stay focused on the end, the victory, the worthwhile conclusion.
2. To you if you are not in a season of struggle: what does it take for someone to be able to “take a new grip”? Yes, they must be able to let go for just a moment. How can someone do that without falling? Someone else has to hold on to them for that moment – come underneath, provide some support, put their arm around their waist and hold the weight for a moment. More concretely: go to someone’s home and take over for a couple of hours so the struggler can catch their breath. Ask if you can bring a meal so they don’t have to cook. Go for coffee and say “this next hour is all about you, just let go and tell me everything that you are struggling with and I promise to just listen, and then pray for you.”
3. As a church: I think there is also an application for us as a church – in community with one another. We need to “take a new grip”, and “mark out straight paths”. As I mentioned during announcements, this evening we are going to look at the results of the church health survey we conducted a month ago. There are some encouraging parts, but let me show you two questions and your responses. You need to know that a score of 50 is the average of churches across Canada, and below 35 is in the lowest 15% of Canadian churches. Here is the first statement: “I am enthusiastic about my church”. Score = 30. Here is the second statement: “I firmly believe that God will work even more powerfully in our church in the coming years”. Score = 37.
What do those tell us? I think it means we are discouraged. We’ve been holding on, and our hands are tired. We’ve been running, and our knees feel like they might give out. I’ve been doing that for 17 years, for the past 5 years as senior pastor. It also tells me that we are looking backwards to what God did in the past instead of forward into what God can do in the coming years.
What does Hebrews 12:12-13 say to us as a community? Get a new grip. Strengthen the weak knees. And then get to work straightening out the paths. Fighting for one another. Refusing to look to the past, and whatever perceived “glory days”, and instead looking ahead believing that God is still God, and He can and will work even more powerfully in the days ahead. I think it means we start to focus on God, and look beyond the struggle to the victory and then hang on even tighter, fight even harder, and get enthused about who God is and how He can change and transform our church and then our world.
Conclusion:
There is another part of the story I began with: the picture I saw of the Bolivian man during that service when I wanted to quit was really just a promise. In January we went to Bolivia to begin our church partnership and one evening we received an invitation to a home for supper. It was the family home of Ivan – our guide/mentor/partner. His mom and dad invited the 6 of us, and Ivan’s brother and fiancé, and we feasted royally.
After dinner, we sat in the living room and Ivan grabbed his dad’s guitar and started to play. You see, music needs no language. Spanish, English, it doesn’t matter so much. And we started to sing and worship. Sometimes in Spanish, sometimes in English. We just sang songs of love for God. And as I sat there on the couch, I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit. I felt the love of this family, the presence of God in their house, the richness of their faith, the goodness of their belief that God could change their country and their lives and that God would liberate the poor, and God through my Bolivian friends lifted my soul. God lifted me up, showed me that it is worth it, reaffirmed my gifts and the reality that this is what God loves to do: 1. change a person, in this case me. 2. change a church – us. and then, 3. change a community.
“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.” (Heb 12:12-13 NLT)
