The church’s missionary task often happens in the context of suffering and persecution. As the church proclaims and disseminates the good news, there will be an inevitable backlash of every sort. Sometimes, the church perseveres and overcomes the reality and threat of persecution. At other times, the church succumbs to the sufferings and persecutions she faces and gives in to the pressure to abandon the faith. The possibility and danger of persecution may tempt the church to waver in her faithfulness to the confession, “throw away her confidence” (Heb 10:35), and neglect the salvation blessings procured by and through the better mediator and high priest, Jesus.
The Epistle to the Hebrews is written to a church that is about to falter under the threat of persecution. As such, the author encourages the church not to succumb to the impending persecution. He reminds the church of her past struggle and endurance for the sake of the faith. He urges her to carry out her missionary task by mimicking the ancestors and the example of Jesus, who stood their ground in the face of suffering and persecution and carried out their mission on earth as God’s emissaries.
This paper is divided into four parts. The first part will delineate the past perseverance of the church in the Epistle and their current realities in the face of persecution. The second part will highlight some of the exemplars who persevered and completed their missionary mandate in the midst of suffering. The third part will explicate Jesus’ mission and suffering as a paradigm for the audience to imitate. Finally, implications for the contemporary church, particularly the African church, and a conclusion will be in order.