With week one of my ride “in the books”, here are some opening scriptures and thoughts to consider in connection with the priority that the Spirit, through the Word of God, has placed on having an enduring faith in Jesus Christ.

Hard Goodbyes: A (The?) Starting Line of Faith that Endures

I said one of the hardest goodbyes I’ve had to say. I know many who have lost a loved one have endured an even harder goodbye than the one I said by my own choice last Sunday. On day one, “goodbye day”, once I was able to compose myself and redirect my thoughts, I wondered during those first number of miles what it might have been like for Jesus to say goodbye to His disciples. Even knowing He’d be back, it must have been, at least in some aspects, a hard goodbye. Then I considered that it wasn’t the first goodbye He had said. He said goodbye to glory first. Even knowing He’d be back, because He fully trusted His Father, that must have been a hard goodbye. The first goodbye was one that involved Him undergoing a test of endurance, while the second goodbye meant His disciples would experience their own tests of endurance. Would they endure until He returned? Their faith in Him would be proven through endurance. Not a last-man-standing type of endurance, but a crucible that proves the genuineness of one’s trust in Him. That crucible is something Jesus modeled and that we are to follow His example.

Jesus Left Glory to Endure

⁶ who though he [Christ Jesus] was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:6–8, ESV)

It’s well worth the reminder that Jesus left home. He left His place in glory. That place of equality with God was not something He counted as something to cling to at all costs. There was something He put ahead of that. Something He was willing to instead take the humble form of man, rather than grasping to hold onto being in the form of God. Something for which He was willing to endure even death on a cross.

12 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 that is set before us, ² 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. ³ Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. (Hebrews 12:1–3, ESV)

It was “for the joy that was set before him” that Jesus endured the cross. It was for that joy that He “endured from sinners such hostility against Himself”. Why? “So that you and I might not grow weary or fainthearted.” So that we’d have someone to look to as not only the founder, but the perfecter, the finisher, the completer, the goal-reacher of our faith. So that our faith might endure to see its intended and paid-for reward. Jesus is our example. He endured, so we are to endure. It is not a race in the competitive sense, but a test of endurance. It is a race designed with running to finish. It is not to win a first place prize, as if you get rewarded for outpacing every other runner. No, it is a race where there is one prize for all who endure to the finish. Faith is that race, and we complete it by following Jesus example of endurance.

Notice the same concept expressed in Jesus response to Peter and then to His other disciples when they were clinging to the glory of man. Jesus was calling them to something far more worthy – the things of God, His glorious plan to save souls. To gain that ultimate prize is not within man’s power or resources to win it. The only path to gaining it is through following Jesus’ endurance.

²¹ From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. ²² And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” ²³ But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

²⁴ Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ²⁵ For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. ²⁶ For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? ²⁷ For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. ²⁸ Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”  (Matthew 16:21–28, ESV)

Jesus Went Away So His Disciples Would Endure

²⁷ Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. ²⁸ You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. ²⁹ And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. ³⁰ I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, ³¹ but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. (John 14:27–31, ESV)

“And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place…”

When what takes place?

It seems to me that Jesus is referring here to the first part of what they had heard Him say to them – “I am going away.”

In other words, “And now I have told you before My departure takes place, so that when My departure does take place…”

“…you may believe.”

Believe what?

Now He is referring to the second part of what they had heard Him say to them – “I will come to you.”

He means for his disciples to not be rattled by what they are about to witness. The Father, Who is always in the position of absolute sovereignty and Whose greatness is second to none, can be trusted fully. He has a plan that is airtight and secures our future. That is the peace He was leaving them.

Note that He was leaving His peace with them. He was giving it to them through His departure, which is not the world’s way of giving it.

His departure would take place by means of the coming of the ruler of this world. Though it would appear that this ruler had gotten the victory, Jesus is assuring His disciples that it would be quite the opposite of what was actually taking place. This ruler had no claim whatsoever on Jesus, but was merely a pawn in the Father’s plan. What matters to Jesus here is that the world can see that all His affections are directed toward the Father through His obedient trust in His Father’s plan.