Hebrews 11:1-12:2.  The hall of faith contains a great cloud of witnesses.  The typical understanding of this idea – mentioned in 12:1 – is that these witnesses are now in heaven looking down at the rest of us as we run the race.  But that is not what the author of Hebrews is saying.  Only Jesus has finished the race.  A witness (in Greek thought) is not someone who sees something, but someone who says something: one who testifies. Those witnesses testified of a faith in a future glory that they had not yet received  “since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect (11:40). When we die, we do not receive our reward. We sleep until our reward comes for us. Only one has finished the race and received the crown.  Looking to him gives us courage to lay aside every weight and sin, and run our own race with endurance (12:1-2).

LORD, you have set the standard.  Looking to you, we now pick up our crosses and run our own race: help us to persevere to the end.