the witnesses speak. they speak of Jesus...

So, here in our little town in the valley we have "holy week services" each day (Monday thru Friday) at 12:05PM during the week leading up to Resurrection Sunday.  A friend invited me to yesterday's service to hear the senior adult choir sing...she's the director.  I was very happy to accept.

The service began with a piano and organ arrangement of "Lamb of God" originally sung by Twila Paris.  It was lovely.  The pastor of the host church then opened in prayer...a very humble, reverent prayer.  We then were invited to sing the wonderful Stuart Townend and Keith Getty hymn "This The Power of the Cross"...a very gospel saturated, recently penned hymn.  We were then led in worship by the choir as they sang a lovely medley of "More Precious Than Silver" and "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross". Then the pastor from one of the other local churches stepped forward to deliver a "holy week meditation".

This is where my blood pressure begins to rise...I'm feeling a vein in the side of my neck getting bigger and pulsating in an erratic rhythm...

The pastor invited everyone to turn to Hebrews 12:1-2...a familiar passage following the "Hall of Faith" chapter 11.  "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."

What a great passage for a "holy week meditation"...or so I thought.

The pastor began with a story about a young boy who was on a baseball team.  He didn't get to play very often, spending each game on the bench.  But, in this game the coach approached him and told him to grab a bat...he was going in.  The boy was terrified and had no confidence that he could hit the baseball...and there were already two outs.

He went to the plate and the ball zipped past him...strike one!  He took a deep breath and repositioned himself in the batter's box.  The ball, once again, sped past him smacking the catcher's mitt...strike two!  The boy was feeling hopeless...but, his whole family was behind him yelling, "You can do it!  You can hit the ball!"  His hopes slightly buoyed the boy prepared himself once again.  Still hearing the chants of his family and friends, the boy watched as the pitcher wound up to prepare to pitch the ball.  A little wiggle of his hips and a tightening of his hands around the neck of the bat and the boy was ready...just in time for...strike three!  He was out.  The game was over and all was lost.

The boy returned to the dugout feeling like a failure and not wanting to make eye contact with anyone.  Then he felt a hand on his shoulder and heard his father say, "Son, get your bat and come back out here...it isn't over, yet."  The boy didn't understand.  He was the third out in the ninth inning...why was his dad telling him it wasn't over?  Not feeling like arguing, he took his bat and returned to home plate.

When he got there he saw his father on the pitcher's mound and the rest of his family positioned in the infield and outfield...grandma was even in centerfield.  His dad pitched the ball and...CRACK!...the boy made contact and the ball soared out into the field.

The boy ran as fast as he could to first base, rounded it and headed to second.  He began to wonder where the ball was.  He didn't think he'd hit it hard enough for a homerun.  As he rounded third base and headed for home, he saw his whole family gathered around homeplate with his father standing behind homebase with his arms held out wide.  Upon reaching home base, the boy was scooped up in his father's arms and surrounded by the love and encouragement of his family. Ah, yes...all was well.

Okay...it's an nice story...but, where is the "holy week message"?

The pastor then proceeded to expound on how we are "surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses" just like the boy in the story.  They are all around us, encouraging us from heaven.  He mentioned several family members of his who have passed away and he's sure they are encouraging him as he still lives on this earth.

I was thinking...hmmm...don't really agree with that...let's move on to the real "holy week message"..."let us lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely...looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame..."

He asked us if we ever felt burdened...discouraged...weighed down with the cares of this world.  He then said we need to remember that we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses who are encouraging us.  They are speaking encouraging words over us.

Then he asked us if we speak encouraging words to others...would others describe us as an encourager or a discourager?  The pastor then closed by encouraging everyone to remember the cloud of witnesses surrounding us...he prayed and...

That was it.

I was dumbfounded...numb...in disbelief...shocked...  We had just been encouraged during this "holy week meditation" from Hebrews 12:1-2 to ponder "dead" people...instead of Jesus Christ, who took on our sin, though He was sinless, and bore the wrath of God that we deserved.  The Word of God even tells us that those "witnesses" who were saved by God's grace and have gone before us are praising and singing "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing." (Revelation 5:12)

The service ended with the congregation singing "Beneath the Cross of Jesus" and I took some measure of comfort that lyricist Elizabeth Clephane pointed us to Jesus and the cross before we exited.

This morning I was thankful for a true "holy week meditation" by J. C. Ryle...

"Never let it be forgotten that He (Jesus) had a real human body, a body exactly like our own, just as sensitive, just as vulnerable, just as capable of feeling intense pain.  And then let us see what that body endured...

Was He flogged?  It was done so that 'by His wounds we are healed' (Isaiah 53:5)

Was He condemned, though innocent?  It was done so that we might be acquitted, though guilty.

Did He wear a crown of thorns?  It was done so that we might wear the crown of glory.

Was He stripped of His clothes?  It was done so that we might be clothed in everlasting righteousness.

Was He mocked and reviled?  It was done so that we might be honored and blessed.

Was He reckoned a criminal and counted among those who have done wrong?  It was done so that we might be reckoned innocent, and declared free from all sin.

Was He declared unable to save Himself?  It was so that He might be able to save others to the uttermost.

Did He die at last, and that the most painful and disgraceful death?  It was done so that we might live forevermore, and be exalted to the highest glory.

Let us ponder these things well:  they are worth remembering.  

As the Church of England Homily of Passion says so well:  'Let this image of Christ crucified be always printed in our hearts.  Let it stir us up to the hatred of sin, and provoke our minds to the earnest love of Almighty God."


Yes...may we be mindful of and thankful for those who have gone before us having lived lives of great faith...like the "great cloud of witnesses" whom God describes in Hebrews 11.

But, may our hearts and our eyes be fixed on Jesus..."who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, He humbled Himself becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  Therefore, God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee would bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."  (Philippians 2: 6-11)