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

Let’s imagine:  The talk show psychotherapist Phil welcomes a new guest, Jesus.

After a few casual comments, Phil tells Jesus, “So, before we get to what brings you here, let’s explore a bit of your past.  What was your childhood like?”

“Well, my parents were called away to a government audit while my mother was pregnant with me.  All the hotels were full and so my parents had to camp out, and I was born in a campground. Soon after I was born there was a government directive to kill all newborn children, so my parents fled with me to another country where we lived as refugees for years; finally, the government in my home country changed and we could move back.

“I should mention that my biological father was out of the picture, so my stepfather and mother raised me. My stepfather died at an early age leaving me to support my mother by doing carpentry work.”

Phil replied, “That sounds like your early life was quite terrible. What came next?”

“When I turned 30 I began a ministry, which my father had encouraged me to do years earlier. I went from town to town, and often had a good reception to my preaching, but also experienced a lot of opposition from the establishment religion.  They accused me of being a drunkard and immoral for my associations with ‘sinful’ people in ‘sinful’ places, just because I went to talk to them in the bars and the other places they hung out.  These religious people called me a bastard, called my mother a whore, and accused me of being insane.

“They were constantly trying to kill me. One time they incited the crowd to throw me off a cliff; another time they picked us stones to throw at me, but those times I escaped.”

“A good part of this time my followers and I had no place to stay, often sleeping alongside the road.”

“Wow, that’s a lot to start with, a lot of horrible life experiences,” offered Phil.  “I can see why you’re here, with all these awful things happening to you. You must have a broken heart having experienced all this. Where do we start? What brought you on the show?”

“Well,” Jesus replied, “Here’s my problem. Everything that happened to me was part of the plan my Father had to free my followers from sin. And so, I have no regrets or any hard feelings to those who did those things to me. However, of my millions of followers, most of them spend most of their time being concerned with everything but what I taught and showed them. They obsess over the smallest insults, the most minor of inconveniences, and they wear themselves out trying to make their life perfect. I want them to consider what has been done for them, the sacrifices that have been made, and not grow weary and lose heart.”

The recipients of the book of Hebrews had suffered persecution and the loss of their homes and possessions. In this verse to them, Paul refers to the race we run, and begins to show us how we can avoid discouragement. Do you think you have it bad? Consider Him…