Faster, Higher, Stronger: The Longest Slice of Time

This is the 3rd of a series of Olympic-themed sermons. The title of the sermon series, "Faster, Higher, Stronger" is the English translation of the Olympic motto: Citius, Altius, Fortius. The underlying theme throughout these sermons is perseverance:

To a sprinter, the hundred-yard dash is over in three seconds, not nine or ten. The first "second" is when you come out of the blocks. The next is when you look up and take your first few strides to attain gain position. By that time the race is actually about half over. The final "second"—the longest slice of time in the world for an athlete—is that last half of the race, when you really bear down and see what you're made of. It seems to take an eternity, yet is all over before you can think what's happening. -- Jesse Owens

Our lives are like a race: there is no quitting; there is no going back and starting over; there is no switching to an easier race once the race has started. There is only that "longest slice of time" until the finish where you find out what you, and God, are made of. The time seems eternal, but is over so soon.

Hebrews 12:1-3

Commentary

Remember, any time a passage begins "Therefore," you need to back and see "What the ‘therefore’ is there for." In this case, Hebrews 11, lists some of the spiritual greats of the OT who lived with the expectation of what God was going to do without seeing the promises realized. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets are all "all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised" (Heb. 11:39).

v1 a great cloud of witnesses. On one hand, we tend to visualize a vast heavenly cloud—Abel, Enoch, et al—watching us. However, the witnesses are martyrs (that’s literally the word here) who have suffered in one way or another due to a faith that led them to trust in what was not yet instead of accepting what already was.

race. The word here can refer to a race or a struggle. The root word in the Greek is found in the English word agony.

v2 author. The term is used only 3 other places in the NT: Acts 3:15, Acts 5:31, and Heb. 2:10. The term may also refer to a city founder, the "hero of the city."

perfecter. I cannot emphasize this enough—the Greek root for perfection also connotes completion and maturity. Therefore we could justifying say that Jesus completes, or matures, our faith. We may beat ourselves up, knowing that our faith is not perfect; however, there is consolation to be had by seeing that our faith is maturing, that the pieces are slowly coming into place.

When Jesus says he has prepared a place for us to go (John 14:2-3), he isn’t just the founder of a heavenly place, he doesn’t simply pay the price for our admission. During his life on earth, Jesus carried our burdens, including the burdens of prayer, belief, faith, and endurance during trials. We can do these things, not just because Jesus was a good role model, but because somehow we have participated with Jesus spiritually as he has overcome his trials.

v3 endured. Endure (v2, 3) and perseverance (v1) are related words in Greek. In all three verses, endurance is the godly response to sin, hostility, and worldly censure.

Application

Adolf Hitler had planned for the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin to be the showcase for his Aryan super race; however, Jesse Owens, an African-American on the United States Olympic track & field team refused to cooperate. In his most recent year at Ohio State, Owens had won all 42 of his events during the collegiate track season, and in the Big Ten Championships that year had set 3 worlds records and tied another within a span of 45 minutes.

It is a myth that Hitler snubbed Owens after his victory in the 100-meter race. On the first day of competition, Hitler had taken to the field to shake the hands of German medalists. However, after the victory of Owens’ teammate, African-American Cornelius Johnson in the high jump, Hitler exited the stadium rather than shake the hand of a member of a race Hitler considered to be sub-human. Owens’ victory in the 100-meter race occurred the following day; by that time Olympic officials had told Hitler to personally honor all the Olympic champions, or none at all. Hitler opted for the latter.

Afterwards, it appeared that the Germans were working behind the scenes against Owens. During the preliminaries in the long jump, one of Owens’ practice run-throughs was ruled a jump; another jump was ruled a scratch, meaning Owens had stepped over the line. A dejected Owens was on the verge of not qualifying for the finals, when German long jumper Luz Long advised Owens to step back a bit on his start—effectively giving up several inches on the jump by ensuring that his jump would be well behind the line. Following Long’s advice, Owens jump—handicapped as it was—qualified him for the finals, which he eventually won. On the medal stand, the only German to shake Owens’ hand was Long, who finished 3rd. Long had set the Olympic record that day, only to have it broken by Owen. Owens later said of Long:

It took a lot of courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler ... You can melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn't be a plating on the 24-karat friendship I felt for Lutz Long at that moment. Hitler must have gone crazy watching us embrace. The sad part of the story is I never saw Long again. He was killed in World War II.

Owens subsequently won the 200-meter race and ran on the champion 4x100 meter relay. His four gold medals in the same summer Olympics would not be matched until Carl Lewis won the same four events in the 1984 Olympics.

Ironically, although Hitler used the Olympics to showcase German superiority, Owens became a favorite of the Berliners who chanted his name when he competed. Owens could travel about Berlin freely and could dine in any of the establishments. When the Olympians returned to America, after a tickertape parade Owens had to take the freight elevator used by African-Americans to attend a party held in his honor. Because of his color, Owens received no commercial endorsements and had to resort to racing thoroughbred horses to eke out a living:

People say that it was degrading for an Olympic champion to run against a horse, but what was I supposed to do? I had four gold medals, but you can't eat four gold medals. There was no television, no big advertising, no endorsements then. Not for a black man, anyway.

Points to Ponder

Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets: how did each of them trust in what was not yet instead of accepting what already was?

If a witness in the Bible is usually someone that suffers for their faith, why do evangelicals usually refer to their Christian witness as something else? Why do we shy away from talking about suffering?

Who had the greater witness, who had to endure the most at the Olympics: Owens or Long?

Owens later said of his return to America:

When I came back to my native country, after all the stories about Hitler, I couldn't ride in the front of the bus. I had to go to the back door. I couldn't live where I wanted. I wasn't invited to shake hands with Hitler, but I wasn't invited to the White House to shake hands with the President, either.

Where was Owens’ greater witness: in Germany or America?

We are called to persevere in the face of sin, hostility, and worldly censure, but frequently that opposition comes in a familiar face, close to home, the status quo. Sometimes the hostility of friends is worse than the hostility of strangers. Consider Joseph and his brothers, Moses and the Israelites, or David and his own family. Nevertheless, we are called to persevere. As we do, we find that Jesus is right there running beside us, saying, "I know what it is like to suffer at the hands of those who should care for you, but I am with you to the very end of the race."