Many people don’t realize just how athletic a race car pit crew has to be. Like any mechanic, these are people who know cars. But unlike most auto shop mechanics, their work is part of a race. They need to be coordinated. They need to know exactly what they’re doing before the car arrives. They need to get the job done, and they need to do it fast. In seconds, the crew needs to jack up the car, fill up the fuel, and change the tires.
Recruiting members for a team’s pit crew is not unlike scouting talent for a football team or a basketball team. In fact, most of the crewmen have experience playing sports like those. And once you’re on a crew you’re going to keep training, with required weightlifting, agility drills, and footwork exercises. They’re not the ones driving the car, but one mistake can cost the race. Winning racers need a winning pit crew. The pit crew gets the racer to the finish.
Comparing the Christian life to a race is something that goes all the way back to Paul. Of course, he wasn’t thinking of race cars, but he did think of this race as something that isn’t a solo endeavor. Because he isn’t on his own he can race with confidence towards a great victory. The Lord holds for him the crown of righteousness. And the people of God, people like Luke, are there to get him to the finish.
As we look at the inspired words of Paul to Timothy we can learn about his attitude and his faith, and that is a great encouragement for us in our own races in this Christian life. We will all have to bear hardship in this life as we pursue the goal of heaven. But we’re not on our own. We run with the assurance of the promises of our Lord. And we have our own pit crew, the brotherhood of believers. God gives us the encouragement of people who can be as Luke to us, and gives us to be as Luke to others. With such support, we can be confident to finish the race.
Today, October 18, is the historic date for the Feast of Saint Luke. Luke is best known for the two books of the Bible that he wrote. He wrote the Gospel of Luke. And then he also wrote the book of Acts, which is clearly written as a “Part 2” of the history he was recording.
We are not told a whole lot directly about Luke, but we can get some clues from his books and from some mentions of him in Paul’s letters. Unlike the other Gospel writers, he wasn’t an eyewitness of Jesus’ ministry. His introduction to his Gospel tells how he was moved to write an orderly account of Jesus’ ministry by carefully following what the eyewitnesses had seen. You could think of him as a divinely inspired reporter and historian.
It seems likely that he was a Gentile. This seems implied by what Paul says at the end of Colossians. Besides that, the name Luke is a Greek name and it’s believed that the name means “from Lucania” which is a region in southern Italy. The church historian Eusebius said that he was born in Antioch in Syria, to the north of Israel.
Luke was a physician, a doctor. But at some point he joined Paul in his missionary work. After Paul died we don’t know what happened to Luke, but we do know from Paul’s writing that Luke was there for him, even when no one else was, right up until the end.
We find this in Paul’s second letter to Timothy, chapter 4. Paul was writing this letter to Timothy, whom Paul had trained as a pastor, and it’s pretty clear from what Paul wrote that he knew he was going to die. This letter was probably written around 67 AD. Nero was emperor in Rome. Paul had been in prison many times. He had faced threats of death many times. This time he did not expect to be escaping.
Maybe that had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit. Maybe he was being realistic. What he wasn’t, though, was being pessimistic. Listen to these words and hear the bold resolve that is there:
5As for you, keep a clear head in every situation. Bear hardship. Do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry. 6You see, I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. 8From now on, there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness. The Lord, the righteous Judge, will give it to me on that day, and not only to me but also to everyone who loved his appearing.
Does Paul sound afraid there? Is he hopeless? Is he despairing? Not in the least! In fact, even though he’s expecting to die for preaching about Jesus, he still encourages Timothy to be like him, bearing hardship and fulfilling his ministry. Clearly, Paul believes that the ministry he was fulfilling was something worth dying for. In fact, this Gospel was so great that he couldn’t even look at death the same way anymore. By nature we try to spend our whole lives running away from death. Death is a sad thing and a fearful thing and an evil thing, the worst thing that can happen in this life. And yet no matter how hard we run we can’t escape it. But for Paul, death is the finish line that he’s been running towards. That doesn’t mean that he’s been careless with his life, as if he’s trying to move that finish line closer. Instead, he treats life as a race that God has set up for him, with the finish line exactly where God has placed it, and it is his goal to strive with all his might until he reaches that end that God has in store.
Being able to think this way doesn’t come out of nowhere. Try going to someone who is terminally ill and saying, “Don’t think of death as a bad thing, think of it as the goal you’re racing towards!” You’re not going to cheer anyone up that way. Instead, this kind of attitude about life and death has to come from faith. Why is it that we fear death in the first place? We weren’t made to die. Death is the result of sin. It’s the punishment that our sins deserve. And after death comes judgment, and we all know what we’ve earned there.
But the Gospel changes everything. We’re not running away from the terror of death and judgment. We’re running the race set for us by Jesus. And what do we see in him? We see a Lord who was not afraid to bear a cross. We see a Lord who boldly went to die. We see that death for him was not the end. And then we hear his promises. By that cross our sins were forgiven. We can also boldly go to die, knowing that death is not the end. And we know that this applies to us because we are baptized in his name and declared God’s own dear children.
Paul’s own attitude is very evidently one that is shaped by faith. What a great example he is! When you’re staring in the face of death, what more do you need than the sure promises of God? You are running the race, but this race is a pretty strange one. It’s not like the Olympics where only one runner gets the gold, or like NASCAR where only one driver gets the championship trophy. We can run this race already knowing what our prize is. It’s the one that Jesus is holding for us, the crown of righteousness, which, Paul says, is for “everyone who loved his appearing.”
You don’t really need anything more than that, do you? Or maybe you do. You might read those words of Paul and say, “Wow, here he is about to face death and he sounds totally fine with it. He’s bold. He’s confident. Clearly he has an unshakable faith.” But then as Paul continues to write you can see that while he certainly is a great example of faith for us, he himself does not view this Christian race as something that should be raced alone. He’s not ashamed to need his pit crew. He writes
9Make every effort to come to me quickly, 10for Demas, because he loved this present world, has forsaken me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. 11Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is useful to me for ministry.
What happens if a race car driver pulls into the pit and no one comes out to change his tires? Paul had plenty of enemies, but the friends who abandoned him were what hurt the most. Demas loved this present world. Others weren’t able to be there for other reasons. Paul wasn’t holding anything against Crescens and Titus. He was asking Timothy to come quickly to see him, and he asked Timothy to get Mark and bring him too. But there are those words that stand out; “Only Luke is with me.”
Those words are sad words. That’s it? So many people whose lives were changed by Paul’s preaching of the Gospel, and now at the end where were they all? At the same time they’re wonderful. What a faithful friend! Luke is a man we hardly know but Paul knew him so very well. Luke would stay with Paul so that has all the encouragement he needs, so that he has support for a glorious finish.
As we think of Luke, the physician, the historian, the faithful friend, we’re reminded of the blessing we have here in the church that we’re not racing alone. Especially when things are going well for us in our lives its easy for us to intellectualize our faith. We might say, “I know what I need to know. I know that Jesus died on the cross and rose again. I know that he promises the forgiveness of sins and life and salvation. I’m all set.” But this life is a race. Races aren’t easy. Bearing hardship is a part of this life. Jesus told us to take up our crosses and follow him.
Getting to the end of this race for a glorious finish does require knowing the promises of our God. Without them we don’t know where we’re going. And we’ll race with fear, not knowing how it will end. So God gives us his promises, his holy Gospel. He gives it to us abundantly. And he also gives us a pit crew. He gives us the family of believers, people like faithful Luke. And he puts you on the pit crew for your fellow believers. You’re not racing alone. You know the crown of righteousness that’s in store for you. You have the encouragement of the saints to keep you going. God will bring you through to the crown of life. Go with faith and peace and joy, confident to finish the race. Amen.
— Pastor Seth Georgson