I can vividly remember a late Wednesday
night back in October of 2004. I sat in the living room and gazed at the TV. My
palms were sweaty and my heart was racing. The final pitch was thrown. Ground
ball. Stabbed by Foulke. He flipped the ball to first, and the Boston Red Sox,
defying all the expert predictions, were the World Series champions after an
86-year drought!
I responded by jumping around the living
room, clapping and shouting, “Yes! Yes!”
I had a powerful urge to high five
someone. Since my family was asleep, I was tempted to run across the street to
my neighbor who is a Sox fan. Surely, he was also running around his living
room looking for someone to high five. Since I was wearing only a bathrobe (I
mean, ONLY a bathrobe), I decided against it.
As the Red Sox players celebrated on the
field, a tear of joy trickled down my cheek. According to news reports, many
tears of joy trickled down many cheeks all across New England.
What a joyful moment. After years of
coming oh-so-close, after ending each season with yet another frustrating and
inevitable defeat, the Red Sox finally reached the pinnacle. It was a dream
come true.
About six months later, I remember slouching
in the pew at church and gazing out the window. My hands were folded in my lap
and my heart was barely beating. I looked at my watch, wishing this thing would
be over.
During his homily, our pastor explained
why that day—Easter Sunday—was so special. Almost 2,000 years earlier, defying
all the expert predictions, Jesus’ tomb was empty. After an 86 zillion year
drought, the celestial scoreboard read: Life: 1, Death: 0.
What a joyful moment that must have
been. After years of watching death have the final say, no matter how long a
person lived, humanity finally had reached the pinnacle. Defying all odds, the
Son of God had risen from the grave and conquered death once and for all. It
was a dream come true.
I responded to this fantastic news by
nodding my head forward with my eyelids fluttering. I had no urge to greet
anyone—high five or otherwise. I was not tempted to run across the aisle and
embrace a fellow brother in Christ.
Unfortunately, I was not the only one in
church that morning suppressing yawns and peeking at his watch. There was no
clapping and shouting. No joyful cries of “Yes! Yes!” And definitely no tears of
joy trickling down anyone’s cheeks.
Why not?
When you think about it, which is the
more joyful event: a baseball game played by a bunch of pampered millionaires, or
the fact that the Creator of the Universe made it possible for us to have
eternal life?
In the grand scheme of things, the
choice is, as they say, a no-brainer.
Certainly, I’m not trying to say we
shouldn’t get excited about sports championships once in a while (although I
don’t recommend the running around in a bathrobe at midnight part).
Maybe we’ve heard the Easter message so
often it’s gotten boring. Or maybe the words have entered our ears but we’ve
never really HEARD the Easter message before.
Maybe we need to contemplate exactly
what God has done for us. Out of love, He lowered Himself to become one of us,
sacrificed His sinless life to pay the price for our sins, and burst forth from
that grave on Sunday morning crushing Satan’s evil designs once and for all.
Isn’t that worth a clap or a shout?
Isn’t God’s awesome love for us worth a joyful cry of, “Yes! Yes!”? Isn’t that
worth at least one little tear of joy trickling down our cheek?
This Sunday is Easter. The Red Sox game
starts at 2 p.m. But please go to church in the morning and put things in their
proper perspective.
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