a Greater Glory

Sports commentators love to make bold assertions like, “He is the greatest to ever play the game” or “Nobody is more dominant than him.”  When I hear these bold proclamations, I often laugh and then I kind of shiver.  The shivering isn’t because I am cold, instead it’s because that is a scary thought.  The greatest there ever was, really?  One of the first things that I learned about sport was that there is always somebody who wants to knock you off of the top and they are working extremely hard to do that.

If we had a time machine and I could go back to 1972 and watch and listen to the sports commentators talk about Jack Nicklaus, I could sit there and chuckle to myself.  I am sure at that point in time they would have been calling him the greatest golfer to have lived (and up to that point, they could possibly be right).  The reason I could chuckle?  I know this guy who will be coming up in the near future and will take the golf world by storm, you know, that Tiger guy.

These same claims are starting up again as Roger Federer goes for his 15th championship.  This is a record in tennis and is a feat that should be loudly applauded, but does this mean that he gets the title of “The greatest tennis player to ever live”?  In the sports world there will always be somebody who is going to be the next big thing.  it’s crazy to say, but in 15-20 years we could be sitting and looking back at Roger and Tiger and be remarking how they were good, but so-and-so and so-and-so are leagues ahead of them.

The coolest part about all of this, is that within Christianity the idea of the greatest, is completely backwards to that of the sports world.  Listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 18:1-4:

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus never wanted the person who was the best, the person who was the most popular, or the person who pumped their fist and banged their chest.  Jesus took the cast-outs, the neglected, and the people who humbled themselves like children. What if the commentators based their “Greatest Player” ideas on the players who not only played well, but were outstanding people?  It’s likely we would be praising a bunch of guys who for the most part we have never heard of.  Sure you hear of the more prominent ones (i.e. Mariano Rivera, Kurt Warner, etc.), but what about the guys who lived their faith and evangelized in their leagues like there was no tomorrow, then we could call them “The Greatest”