Pioneer and Perfection

The Reading is from St. Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews 11:33-40; 12:1-2

BRETHREN, all the saints through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, received promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and scourging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were killed with the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, ill-treated - of whom the world was not worthy - wandering over deserts and mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. 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 perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfection of our faith.

This passage from St. Paul is remarkable for its description of the great “cloud of witnesses”, the Old Testament saints who went before Christ. But the point we’re supposed to get is not about them; it’s about us. Like them we must “lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely”. We must run our own race. But we have what they had only been promised. We can “look to Jesus the pioneer and perfection of our faith.” Not only do we have the great cloud of witnesses to look to, we have Christ Himself, and Christ has not only prompted our faith, as God did with a promise to the saints of old, but He finishes (perfects) it. Apart from us (our perfection, Christ’s perfection), that great cloud of witnesses will not be made perfect either. They began their race, but theirs is only finished as we finish ours in Christ. This is a heavy responsibility! But it is not too heavy, for Christ has already perfected our faith by becoming one of us, enduring the Cross, conquering death, ascending to the Father, and sitting at His right hand.

(Other translations have “author and finisher”. Greek: eis ton tes pisteos archegon kai teleionten Iesoun.)