Since Pheidippides is a name that doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, it is hardly surprising that he is best remembered by one guy as ‘that guy who ran 26 miles and they named the Olympics after him.’ No wonder such conversations, like Pheidippides himself, suddenly stop dead. In fact, he was the runner who took the news of the Greek’s victory over Persia to the people in Athens. He ran the 26 miles from Marathon (the site of the battle) to Athens, fell down exhausted, and literally exclaimed with his dying breath: “Joy to you, we’ve won!” Of Course, these are the words that every believer wants to cry out with their dying breath.
The apostle Paul had run hard with the Good News of the Lord. When growing old, he greatly anticipated his departure from this world and told his protégé, Timothy, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2Tim.4:7). Like you, I am not quite feeling like I’m seeing the last milestones on my run. And with your help in the Lord, I, too, am striding on to the finish line. Knowing that our brother Paul is now one of the stadium crowd that the writer of the Book of Hebrews is alluding to when he says: “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 endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1), I am encouraged to keep going. Death is the finish line, but it is not the end. It is the beginning of the life of the those who will wear a victor’s crown. Those who have cried out: “Joy to you, we’ve won!” How beautiful heaven must be. It is full of Jesus’ winners.
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