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 perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer 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. Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation which addresses you as sons?—
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage when you are punished by Him. For the Lord disciplines him whom He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives.”
It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time at their pleasure, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness.
Hebrews 12:1-10 (Epistle of the Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste)
The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste are commemorated on March 9. Because this is such an important feast, on Sunday, March 9, the Epistle lesson will be for the Forty Holy Martyrs, while the Gospel will be for the Sunday of Orthodoxy. The Forty Holy Martyrs were a group of Roman soldiers who were martyred in the year 320. Their names are known, but they are commemorated as a group. They confessed a faith in Jesus Christ and were condemned to walk naked into a frozen lake on a bitterly cold night, so that they would freeze to death. On the shore of the lake, there were warm baths being set up in order to tempt those who were freezing to renounce Christ and get warm. One of the forty men in the water turned back and got into the warm cauldron where he went into shock and immediately died. One of the guards, witnessing this, proclaimed himself a Christian, removed his garments and joined the other thirty-nine men in the freezing water, thus bringing their number back to the original forty. The next morning, the frozen bodies of the men still showed signs of life and they were burned and scattered into a river.
The Epistle for the feast of the Forty Holy Martyrs is taken from Hebrews 12. The reading appropriately mentions “so great a cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1) as there were forty martyrs, and the witness of thirty-nine influenced the fortieth. There is great strength in numbers. We are more encouraged in our faith when we are surrounded by others who are on the same journey. When we feel like we are the only one running the race, it is much easier to be tempted to stop running.
St. Paul further exhorts us to “let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer 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.” (12:1-2) Imagine being one of these soldiers. Their “race” was not an athletic contest, or a competition against anyone else. It was a race against their own will. Could they persevere in extreme cold, having given up their commissions as soldiers. One would imagine that in the midst of the freezing water, facing a slow death, they must have kept their thoughts on Jesus, on the joy that awaited them in heaven, and were able to endure the shame and ridicule being hurled at them by the soldiers who had formerly been their teammates, maybe even their friends.
The word “discipline” is used multiple times in the Epistle passage. “Disciple” and “disciplined” share the same root. The “disciple” is a student and the student learns through repetition, and it takes discipline to keep up the repetition to the point of mastery, and it take discipline to continue to have a master-level of something. Take the baseball player, as an example. It takes repetition to learn to hit and throw. It takes discipline to practice frequently. Once a person has reached a level of competence, even mastery, such as a Major League hitter or pitcher, it still takes discipline to practice and stay sharp with what one has learned.
As Christians, we are disciples, in the sense that we are students of the faith. We continue to learn and deepen our faith through prayer, Scripture, worship, education, obedience and service. Even when we’ve reached some level of mastery with these things, we still must continue to go to them in order to maintain our faith.
Discipline has another meaning, and that is correction. One who does not follow rules, as an example, is disciplined, usually punished, in order to coerce the proper behavior. Fathers discipline their children, as the Scripture says, in order to get them to do the right things. For instance, a father might slap the hand of his young son as it is about to go onto a hot stove. This is correction for the purposes of keeping the child safe from the heat of the stove. Sometimes God disciplines us, perhaps even allows certain things to happen, in order to help us course correct and focus on Him. That doesn’t mean things like tragedies, please don’t read that possibility into this. Sometimes God sees that good will come for us out of something bad. I can look back at period of my life and think of how I’ve benefited from bad things that God allowed to happen, so that I might have a new perspective or hardened resolve. As we read in Hebrews 2:10, God “disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness.” The ultimate goal for us as children of God is to attain the Kingdom of heaven. That is His hope for us. That should be our goal for ourselves. Each of us has a path there, and some paths may include more discipline (study) or discipline (correction). In either case, discipline is part of being a disciple.
The holy martyrs suffered painful tortures for Your sake, O Lord; be compelled by what they endured, and heal our every pain, we entreat You, O only benevolent God. (Apolytikion of the Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, trans. by Fr. Seraphim Dedes)
Don’t despair if your path is difficult. Stay disciplined. Stay focused. If the water of your life is freezing, keep your thoughts on the prize of the eternal warmth of heaven.
