Roots of Bitterness - 3

They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised. (Hebrews 11:37-39)

If I put myself right now into the place of some of these people described here I am afraid that I would be very tempted to feel bitter. Not that that would be even possible after I was dead, but nevertheless I would be tempted to think that God had not kept His promises of protection and had left me in the cruel hands of my enemies to torture me and try to cause me the most pain possible. What kind of a God would allow me to suffer all that in the name of bearing a witness for Him. Obviously I have a lot of things for my heart to learn about a deeper connection with God before I am ready to gladly allow those kinds of things to happen to me for the name of my Savior.

Yet something in their lives and their inner picture of God resulted in gaining approval through their faith. Even though they did not receive what was promised, which is grounds for a great deal of bitterness by most of us, they gained the approval of God which, it seems, was more important to them than receiving the promises of God immediately. In their choices they showed themselves to be somehow more worthy (whatever that means) than I seem to be right now.

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2)

A cloud of witnesses, huh? While I know that is not disembodied spirits of those just described, I am also aware that there are plenty of other ways my life is being watched much more than I ever think about. And it also involves the fact that these people just described are not witnesses of my life but their stories are witnesses to me about their life and more importantly about how God relates to people like us.

The idea of witnesses means more than just people looking at me. Witnesses are also people who witness to me. It works both ways. We are surrounded in this Great War and the runup to the Great Trial of the universe with everyone who are all called as witnesses to everyone else as to what they will testify about the truthfulness and integrity of God. No one can escape being a witness. The only decision anyone has is whether they will be a faithful and true witness about the character of God or whether they will bear false witness against what He has revealed about Himself.

If I allow a root of bitterness to poison my witness it becomes – it has become – an encumbrance to me. It also becomes a source that causes sin to bear fruit in my life that easily entangles me and prevents me from being able to run freely. It also wears me out emotionally and physically and spiritually so that I do not have any endurance and causes me to be distracted by all sorts of things to keep my mind off what is supposed to consume my attention to attract me out of myself. Whatever is causing me to feel bitter – and it may be a number of roots – is creating all of these problems described in this verse.

I am encouraged by the solution put forward in this text for my problem of bitterness. First of all, I realize that to be saved I have to have faith. The problem has always been that I can't get faith by trying to get it. But this verse tells me that I need to keep fixing my eyes on Jesus who is the source and the completer of my faith. I just studied in Romans 12:3 that God has given everyone a measure of faith. So here I learn that if I want that faith to become active and effective and to thrive, I have to fix my attention relentlessly on the source of that faith if I want it to be very useful. It also shows me how Jesus Himself handled similar circumstances to what the people described in the last chapter endured. He too set His attention relentlessly on what He considered the most important inspiration to keep Him on track when everything and everyone around Him were working to discourage and derail His faith. He set His heart on joy that was before Him.

I know that joy means intense desire to be with someone closely, emotionally, in every respect. It means sharing hearts without barriers no matter what one is experiencing. It means being valued and cherishing each other. This desire that Jesus focused on to draw us, to draw me, into intimate closeness to His heart and even physically to His body was the driving force that overrode every other emotion or fear that threatened to distract Him. So what does this mean for my life?

Well, first of all I see a connection in this meaning of joy back to a previous verse. Because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect. (Hebrews 11:40) That reinforces the true meaning of joy as needing to be together. Their joy was impossible to perfect without being joined together with both Jesus and with us, until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:13)

Bitterness is a poison that will always prevent that unity from becoming reality. It distorts my view of the truth about God and keeps me distracted from focusing enough on Jesus to be transformed. I definitely want to get free of all my roots of bitterness and live in the freedom and joy that are found in the true body of Christ. But how do I get there from here?

This text says that Jesus despised the shame. I have wondered nearly all my life what that really means and I still don't understand it very well. It almost sounds like the notion of shaming the shame – fighting fire with fire. Is that what it means? I suspect there is a great deal more here but I need some insight on this one. But whatever it means it enabled Him to sit down at the right hand of the throne of God. That sounds like a pretty good (and safe) place to take up residence.

I know He did not get there and could have never gotten there if He had allowed any amount of bitterness to take root in His heart. He certainly had a great deal of bitterness poured down His throat in more ways than one. But however He accomplished it, He did not allow all the bitterness of the whole world heaped on Him both externally and internally to ever form any roots into His soul. His heart was sealed against it with the love that was willing to endure instead of indulge in self-pity.

For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Hebrews 12:3)

This seems to be another angle to the first imperative to fixing our eyes on Jesus. In this case I am supposed to analyze the responses of Jesus to situations that tend to cause me bitterness and see an alternative way to respond. In this way I can make myself available to be mentored. Hostility will always cause my heart to become weary and lock up and lose touch with others if I do not know how to endure the way Jesus somehow endured. Everyone around me are sinners just like He experienced when here on earth so there obviously is a great deal for me to learn about how to live from His example without becoming infected with a root of bitterness from hostilities directed at me.

(next in series)