Jesus and the Super Bowl
December 14, 2011
Last year, my favorite football team made it to the Super Bowl and WON! This team of course, would be the Green Bay Packers. The Super Bowl Championship was such a fun game to watch and the victory was sweet. But the celebration was SO much sweeter for those of us who had followed the entire regular season, for those of us who knew the whole “back story” if you will.
The Packers finished 10-6 in the regular season, entering the playoffs as the sixth seed. Despite many injuries, the team rose from the ashes, landing the wildcard at the last second, defeating their number one rivals for the NFC Championship, and finally beating the Steelers to become World Champions! (just thinking about it gets me excited again!)
In reading the New Testament we can celebrate in the victory that we have in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but what about the back story? What about the story of Israel, God’s chosen people, who chose over and over again to reject God? Maybe this is cheesy, but the way I see it, celebrating Jesus without knowing anything about the story of Israel is like cheering for a final score without watching any of the game. The more we understand the back story, the more we understand how amazing God’s grace truly is! Could it be that God’s story is bigger than we thought it was? Could it be that our journey forward with God, is dependent on our willingness to journey back with God…
“He who has not felt what sin is in the Old Testament knows little what grace is in the New. He who has not trembled in Moses, and wept in David, and wondered in Isaiah will rejoice little in Matthew or rest little in John. He who has not suffered under the Law will scarcely hear the glad sound of the gospel.” —R. W. Barbour