Running Behind

Distractions put me behind schedule in training for a half marathon. But I must not let them impede my spiritual preparations for a much greater event: the Passover.

Last year my 18-year-old daughter and I decided we would run Cincinnati’s Flying Pig Marathon this year. Well, the half marathon to be exact, unless we don’t make the turn and end up going the whole distance!

We run regularly. Erica is training with her high school track team, and I have been running an average of more than 10 miles a week for years. I even tried the whole roughly 13-mile distance earlier this year on a snow-covered track.

But I had been meaning to look up some specific training programs for half-marathon newbies. Distractions and forgetfulness delayed that plan for months. Until this week. Now, less than six weeks from the race, I’ve found some great nine-week training programs!

For Erica and me, this is just a recreational run. We never had illusions of setting any records or winning anything. So as I looked at that intense training program I was already too late for, I began to lower my expectations even further. It’s just a physical race, after all.

The spiritual race

But the analogy and the dangers of distractions were not lost on me. I might be able to lower my expectations for the half marathon, but I must not do so for the much more important race we Christians are in.

One of the mile markers in that spiritual marathon is soon coming upon us. Every year, Christians remember the anniversary of the death of our Savior. The solemn recommitment to God symbolized by the bread and the wine of the New Testament Passover is just over three weeks away.

In spite of the terrible suffering Jesus knew was just ahead of Him, He told His disciples: “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Luke 22:15). He had much to teach them (consider John 13 through 17, all from that night). He loved them, and us, enough to then go through horrible beatings and the agony of crucifixion so we can be forgiven.

The apostle Paul recorded vital instructions he had received about how to prepare for and observe the New Testament Passover.

“For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’

“In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’

“For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim of Lord’s death till He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:23-26).

The bread and the wine, representing Christ’s body and blood given in His complete sacrifice for our sins, are not something to take lightly. Paul gave us a warning and advice about preparing for this meaningful memorial.

“Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup” (1 Corinthians 11:27-28).

Baptized Christians are commanded to take the bread and wine, to recommit to our loving God and Savior. Examining ourselves will surely show how far we fall short of the perfection of our Savior and how much we need His sacrifice and His help to overcome. But Paul was not talking about being worthy. It was the way they were taking the Passover that was improper. Seeking God’s forgiveness and help enables us to take these symbols in a humble, appropriate manner.

Self-examination and spiritual preparation

I want to learn from my failure to prepare fully for the half marathon. In this far-more-important spiritual race, I must not let distractions or forgetfulness keep me from the self-examination Paul described. James also warned about the danger of beginning the process of self-examination—looking into the spiritual mirror of God’s law—but then forgetting the sins we must repent of and seek to overcome (James 1:23-25).

At this time of the year, we can take instruction from Paul’s description of the powerful effects of godly sorrow in producing repentance and change:

“You sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication!” (2 Corinthians 7:11).

For further study of the incredible sacrifice of Jesus Christ and of the meaningful Passover, please see our Fundamental Beliefs on “6. Sin and God’s Law,” “7. The Sacrifice of Jesus Christ,” “9. Repentance” and “12. The Passover.”

   Mike Bennett is a husband, father and minister of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association, living in Ohio.