Game Over?

Basketball is a fast paced sport that is at its most exciting when it is highly competitive, when two evenly matched teams go after each other relentlessly in a closely matched contest.  Leads are changed frequently, scores are tied multiple times in such a game, and the outcome remains unknown until the last second, when a team loses or wins on a last-second missed shot or buzzer-beater.  The game is a bit less compelling, on the other hand, when one team soundly outplays its opponent, so that the outcome of the game is essentially determined several minutes before the final buzzer.  Chick Hearn, the late great radio announcer of the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team, when seeing that one team had an insurmountable lead, would often calmly announce, "This game is in the refrigerator, the door is closed, the lights are out, the eggs are getting cold, the butter's getting hard, and the Jell-O's getting jigglin."

In other words, it's basically "game over".

Such was the sentiment when Jesus was nailed on the cross.  When Jesus first appeared on the scene as an adult, Satan challenged him repeatedly, "If you are the son of God..." and tempted him to turn stones into bread, to leap off a high place, and to bow before Satan.  In each occasion, Jesus countered with words of Scripture, and held his ground until Satan left him, and angels came and ministered to him.  (Matthew 4:1-11)  For the next three years, he healed the sick, raised the dead, fed the hungry, and expelled demons.  Jesus seemed to be building a comfortable lead over Satan until the final hours of his earthly existence, when the situation took a dramatic turn.  

Instead of Satan tempting Jesus to turn stones into bread to fill his hunger, he tasted bitterness at Golgotha,

"they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it."  (Matthew 27:34)

Instead of Satan tempting Jesus to leap off a high place and be saved by angels, he was mocked and scorned as he lay hanging on the cross,

And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, "You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself!  If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross."  So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, "He saved others; he cannot save himself.  He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.  He trusts in God, let God deliver him now, if he desires him.  For he said, 'I am the Son of God.'"  (Matthew 27:39-43)

Instead of Jesus being tempted to bow before Satan, he was jeered as the soldiers bowed before him,

And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand.  And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!"  And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head."  (Matthew 27:28-30)

Satan pressed on as Jesus gasped his final breaths on that fateful Friday afternoon.  Would darkness reign?  Was this "game" in the refrigerator?

Jesus' final words..."It is finished"  (John 19:30)

It was not over.  Jesus finished, or accomplished his purpose on earth.  He died for us and paid the penalty for our sins.  Sunday was coming, Jesus would rise again, and death was defeated.  Salvation has come.

It was no contest.

Game over.

Deep Roots

"Wow, look at those palm trees...how tall do you think they are?  80 feet?  Maybe 100 feet or more?"

Those trees had been around for years, but being in Southern California, palm trees don't necessarily get as much of our attention, since they are everywhere.  They certainly didn't seem to impress the rest of my family as we passed by them on the way back home from church one beautiful, clear Sunday afternoon.

"Those?  Oh."  My wife responded sleepily, then closed her eyes.

"Mmmph..."  My kids were nearly as enthusiastic in the back seat about these towering giants.

"Yeah, aren't they huge?  I was just thinking, it'd be a very bad thing if one of those trees ever falls over.  Imaging all the damage it can cause."

The problem with having a lot of tall trees is that they sometimes will fall, and occasionally in bunches.  A major windstorm in late 2011 put the normally inconspicuous Temple City, CA, for several days on national television as unusually fierce winds knocked down about 500 trees in the city and caused about 10 million dollars in damage.  Some of the power lines toppled likewise, and we were without electrical power for 5 days.

"Glenn, you're wrong."  Suddenly my wife woke up.  The opportunity to correct me must have energized her.  "I guess you don't know that palm trees have very deep roots, and they don't fall like other trees.  Did you realize that not a single palm tree fell during the windstorm?"

I couldn't verify the facts while driving, but I knew that my wife was correct.  She is, after all, the gardener and landscape expert in our family, and being a member of the local CERT (Community Emergency Response Team), she would have much more first-hand information when it comes to disaster information and readiness.  Indeed, the palm tree is characterized by the presence of both a network of shallow, fibrous roots, as well as a very deep anchoring root, whose purpose is to prevent the palm from toppling.  Palms sway and bend in the wind, but they don't break.

Just as deep, anchoring roots keep palm trees standing during windstorms, a deep-rooted and deep-anchored faith will keep our lives from collapse when severe trials and difficulties arise in our lives.  Job was described as being the wealthiest man in the world, but because his faith was in God and not in his great wealth, he was able to weather the loss of all his possessions, all his children, his health, and the respect of his wife and friends, until God not only restored his possessions, family and reputation, but provided him abundantly more than before.

Our roots also need to be in Christ and in applying his words:

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.  (Colossians 2:6-7)

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.  And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.  (Matthew 7:24-25)

May we be deeply rooted and stand in times of adversity, like the mighty palm tree during storms.

It's a good thing that there aren't any coconut trees in the neighborhood.  Flying coconuts can be a problem....