Character in a Crisis: Endurance
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Photo by Tobias Seidl on Unsplash
This week is what Christians all over the world call Holy Week—the week leading up to Easter when we celebrate a risen Christ. As I read the story of Jesus’s last gathering with his disciples, I was struck by the character traits that Jesus emulated. Traits that allowed him to step toward the cross and purchase our redemption.
I want to look a little more closely at the character of Christ as he walked through his own crisis, in hope that it will help us walk through what is surely our collective time of crisis in the world.
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Endurance: John 15:18-27
In this section of his teaching, Jesus warns his disciples that once he is gone they are going to have to put up with all kinds of persecution. He explains that things here in the world are contrary to the things of Christ because Christ and the world are enemies.
In fact, he goes so far as to tell his followers that the world will hate them because it hated Jesus himself. These are scary words to people who would soon be left without Jesus to physically lead them. How would they carry on?
With endurance.
It takes endurance to face constant persecution as the disciples did. It takes endurance to stay on mission, even after the person teaching and leading you is gone. It takes endurance to face the challenges of everyday life in a world that is hostile to the gospel message.
Yet Jesus encourages his followers to keep following him, even though difficult days lie ahead.
Part of living the Christian life is having endurance to run the race, even though we don’t know when our race will end. But as we endure, Jesus says, he will send a helper, the Holy Spirit, who will bear witness about him.
And he promises peace (John 14:27)—something I certainly need today. What about you?
Today, this week, this month, feels like a test of endurance, doesn’t it? But we cannot give up. We must keep going, even in the face of great adversity. We must keep following Jesus, who is our greatest example of endurance in the face of extreme trial. We must cling to the hope of the resurrection.
And we must remember that we are never alone as we run our race with endurance.
“Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.” Hebrews 12:3
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Character in a Crisis series:
