If you’re a serious sports-watching fan, October is among the best months of the year. College football is in full swing, and FBS rankings unexpectedly change every weekend. NFL star players are mostly healthy and teams’ playoff hopes are high. And if baseball is your game, it’s continuous playoff games leading up to the World Series.
But every competitive sport hugely relies on one single factor. Fairness. At every level of sports, from 4-year-olds soccer to athletes making millions, fairness governs every game. Referees, coaches, and players all follow the rulebook. Because playing “fair and square” allows the game to be fun.
We’re hard-wired to want fairness. We’re made in the image of God who is perfectly just; so it feels right and good when things are fair. In Matthew 5, Jesus knew his audience was familiar with… “eye for eye and tooth for tooth fairness.”
Here’s a fuller picture, quoting the Law found in Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy… “Show no pity, life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, fracture for fracture, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. As he has injured the other, so he is to be injured.”
Believe it or not, those commands were “fair”—the law defended the innocent and limited retaliation to an “even-steven” kind of standard.
Until Emmanuel, God with us, stepped onto the field preaching the Good News of the Kingdom. He’d come full of grace and truth. He’d come with a blessing for the merciful….that they would be shown mercy. Jesus, whose referee authority trumped every teacher of the Law, had come with a revised playbook; he put better rules in place because the game of life is played differently in the Kingdom.
In the Kingdom, you don’t retaliate, you don’t hurt someone who’s hurt you. You forgive. In the Kingdom, if someone sues you or takes something possession that belongs to you, you let it go, thinking—maybe they need it more than me…how else can I bless them? In the Kingdom, if someone treats you harshly, unfairly demanding much from you, you give them way more than they ever would have expected. Because like their King, Kingdom people love. They are generous, forgiving, and kind. Kingdom people don’t fight for fairness but instead, willingly relinquish their rights. Kingdom people have a King they call Father, a King who loves them as sons and daughters, a heavenly King who is….. literally……perfect.
And out of an extravagant love for us….he calls His kids to look just like him.
What an honor.
Donielle Winter EFCC Member