The Longest Yard

A few years ago I visited Heinz Field, home of the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers. During my visit, I had the opportunity to stand on the field where the team plays. As I was surveying the sights and pondering what it must be like to be on the field and look up into the stands at 68,400 screaming fans, I was mindful of several NFL games where the offense was stopped just one yard (three feet) from the goal line. They couldn’t move the ball any farther for a touchdown. Standing on Heinz Field looking at the one yard line, I thought all a player has to do is fall over and he’s crossed the goal line. How hard can it be to move a football one yard? Anyone who has played football can answer.

Life has been compared to sports. Solomon could have been thinking of a football game when he penned: Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to the skillful; but time and chance happen to them all (Ec 9:11). The words time and chance leaves us with the feeling that there is providence at work behind the scenes. The event is wholly “in God’s hand.” Often the fastest runner and the “best team” don’t always win. There are unknown and unforeseen forces at work.

The Apostle Paul likeness our journey to an Olympic race: Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it (1Co 9:24). The emphasis here is not on the prize but on the preparation and training that proceeds the race and the prize. Some competitors fall by the wayside because they did not follow a strict, self-denying diet and rigorous training discipline.

However, between the start and finish line are hurdles and obstructions. To win takes training, willpower, determination and patience—…let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, says the writer to the Hebrews (Heb 12:1). In football, one hundred yards (three hundred feet) is the distance between goal lines. It will not be a cakewalk to the goal line because eleven men on the opposing team standing in your way. Hence, what is so hard about moving the football one yard? Eleven men!

Most people have heard the proverb that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. A team works together. There’s always the possibility of one member sandbagging the team. Jesus had a sandbagger on his team: “Did I not choose you, the twelve? Yet one of you is a devil.” He was speaking of Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, for he, though one of the twelve, was going to betray him (John 6:70-71).

There is nothing as treacherous as someone unbeknownst to you working against the team. The 1919 Black Sox Scandal rocked baseball. Eight members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of throwing the World Series for money. Judas’s teammates had no suspicion that he was working against them. It was only at the end of the game—in the Garden of Gethsemane—did the apostles realize they had a traitor in their midst. Using the cover of darkness, Judas arrived with the Temple guard to point Jesus out and given him the “kiss of death.”

A team is no better than its coach. Victory or defeat lands at the feet of the coach. A coach must be able to develop players. They must have the knack of seeing raw talent when everyone else sees nothing. A good coach knows the game inside and out. They can watch their opponent and discover their weakness. We need someone in our corner who knows the tricks and ploys of the cheater to have any chance of winning. A coach who knows what it is to be a player. Our coach is Jesus who is the “author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God (Heb 12:2).” Coach Jesus has played against the greatest cheater of them all and won!

The only way we can move the ball that last yard and win the game is through Christ. Jesus shows us how to play the game and win when surrounded by cheaters. Victory is assured! These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world (John 16:33).

Touchdown!