Writers of the New Testament were familiar with the Olympic games which were observed five hundred years before their time in Greece. Every city of size in Palestine had a stadium where athletic contests were held. Among the many games was the foot race.

As a means of dramatizing the need for discipline in the Christian life, Paul drew analogies from the athletic games, particularly running and boxing to illustrate the need for discipline and control in the Christian life.

Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath.... Well, J do not run aimlessly, 1 do not box as one beating the air; but I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified (1 Cor. 9:25-27).

The author of Hebrews uses the imagery of an athletic stadium. Among spectators are the heroes of the Christian faith: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and the prophets (Heb. 11). Here is the picture of a stadium; spectators are in the galleries; contestants are ready to run. The spectators, as William Hersey Davis used to put it, are letter men and women, alumni returned to see a later generation run the race.

"Wherefore" seeing that the galleries are filled with Gold Medal persons -- those persons of faith in the 11th chapter of Hebrews -- the new runners are enjoined to lay aside every "weight" (handicap), and "sin" (sin in general) and run with patience. This is not a hundred yard dash but a long and sometimes grueling race, a marathon.

I have two general points to press upon us: (1) to run the race of faith freely and fully we must learn how to handle our handicaps; and (2) it is imperative that we look to Jesus as both master and model of our lives.

The figures in the balcony have already run and by faith have won. They endured, and are there to encourage us, to witness to us. Encouraging one another in Christ is a lost virtue. As a worshiper at Harvard Memorial Church when George Buttrick was pastor there (and as colleague at Southern Baptist Seminary when he taught there) Buttrick called me Barnabas because he said: "You encourage me." What a compliment from one of the great preachers of this century! But his was a ministry of encouragement. This is our ministry also (Eph. 6:22; 2 Cor. 1:3-7).

Therefore, seeing that we are surrounded by all of these persons who have won the race through persistence, patience, suffering and discipline, let us also lay aside every weight and sin that would disqualify us. The term also indicates that we are to practice the same discipline which the saints of faith in the balcony did.