The Bungee Cord 4-11-22

Hello,

Those of you who watch sports, especially college basketball, know that at the end of each college basketball game the two teams line up and pass by one another shaking hands. I don’t know what they say to each other, but I suspect that most often it is, “good game” or maybe nothing at all. Unfortunately, this past year these handshakes have become fistfights because tempers have remained on high alert, taking only a small spark to ignite them.

Some announcers have said that it is time to abandon this “out of date” practice. They say that it’s not fair to the players to put them in a situation where they have just fought hard against each other and expect them to respectfully shake hands. It is, they say, like lighting a lighter near a powder keg. The answer to avoid the rumbles is to not do this handshaking anymore.

I may be in the minority, but I strongly disagree. So strongly do I disagree that I think that every athletic event from Pee-Wee soccer to professional baseball should end with a respectful shaking of the other team’s hands. Why? Because the handshake speaks a loud and important truth: It is only a game! It is also true that every athlete in every event has put in much effort and practice into their sport, and because of that their identities are locked up with how well they play, and whether they win or lose. Nevertheless, it is still a game.

You and I, however, are not only a game to God. When it comes to you and me, God has chosen to engage himself in a battle to the death. Winner take all. Loser gets nothing. So valuable to God are you and I, that he has taken on everything and anything that would claim us as their own: sins that try to imprison us with a lifetime sentence, the failures that seek to lock us away in a deep and dark dungeon of a place, the expectations of the world that press down on us like a hot clothes iron. To all these things, God has said, if they want you or me, they have to go through him first.

That is what this week is all about, this week that we call Holy Week. It is about the battle that God has taken on with everything and anything that would seek to claim you or me as their own. A battle that began with a meal of grace that ended in betrayal. A battle that took place in a garden of prayer, that interrupted a desperate prayer with clubs and swords. A battle that was fought in a governor’s courtyard with lashes, spit, thorns, and mockery. A battle that took place on a Golgotha cross where blood was spilt and death took the upper hand. A battle where death was cheering victory for three days. But a battle that ended with a comeback victory that the world has never seen, when Jesus, and Jesus alone walked out of that grave…ALIVE!

And after this battle was over, there were no handshakes given to the opposing foes, because none of them had survived. Only Jesus stood tall at the battle’s end. No, this was no game for Jesus, and if anything or anyone would like to wrest you or me from Jesus, they are going to find out, they are in a losing battle….because to Jesus, you and I are not only a game.

Have a great Holy Week,

God’s grace and peace

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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