The Greatest Victory Of All Is Yours
On game days, our city is pilfered. Traffic is congested, parking tickets rain like confetti, and any downtown restaurant with a TV is at full capacity. This is the land where pedestrians bleed green, college students run the show, and every heart beats in time with the Michigan State fight song.
This is Sparta.
As East Lansing residents (who bleed plain, old-fashioned red), you learn to live with it all, and simply wonder at the psychology of crowd culture from living room windows. It’s incredible that even in such a divisive season of our nation, thousands of people — an entire city — can unify over something as relatively trivial as a college basketball game.
I witnessed this first-hand on Saturday when I was out to eat with my family. I cranked my neck to watch the suspended television. When a Michigan State three-pointer bagged a victory against Purdue in the final seconds, the dining room erupted with a unified voice of praise. High-fives clinked like champagne cheers and elated wallets treated their tables to another round. I watched the ocean-like crowd at the Breslin ripple and rage at the triumph, and I wondered to myself, what kind of delight surges through the body so that people cannot stop from jumping?
Victory belonged to the Spartans that day, which meant victory belonged to all of us. Even though we did nothing to deserve it, we couldn’t help but rejoice.
This idea, celebrating a victory that wasn’t ours to win, is a core biblical concept. Throughout scripture, God’s mercy is bestowed upon his undeserving people, but there is no single act of grace that shook the world quite like Jesus’ death and resurrection. Christ declared on the cross, “It is finished,” thus liberating his people from the toils of sin and self-reliance, and eternal separation from him. In that triumphant act, we were reconciled to God for “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Upon Christ’s all-conquering podium, he hoisted believers up to celebrate an everlasting achievement. Jesus even welcomed us into the post-game locker room celebration, and lifted us upon his shoulder, saying, “Victory over sin and death belongs to me, which means victory belongs to all of you!”
“The sting of death is sin…But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 15:57
Jesus conquered death and gave us life. He defeated our past and gave as a future. We were fair-weather fans, but Christ made us victors. He made us friends.
What would it look like for the church to live in a constant state of unified celebration because of the victory that is ours in Christ Jesus? Imagine the influence we could have on our towns, our cities, our world, if instead of bleeding green, maize and blue, republican or democrat, we bled first and foremost out of the fountain of grace flowing from our Savior’s wounds. Would not joy, elation, generosity burst from our lives and into our world?
“Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” 1 Corinthians 15:58
With the Super Bowl not far behind us and the Winter Olympics at its start, culture has gold on the mind, and there is a heightened emphasis on competing, choosing sides, winning. While you watch your favorite competitors and cheer them on, have fun, but be reminded of the greatest victory of all, the team that is the church family, and the Champion who has won everything and made you the victor.
In your personal life, whether you’re stricken, sidelined, starting over, or just starting, the ultimate victory is won. The victory is yours. The victory is ours. Let’s celebrate. Let’s unify in a voice of praise.
“Thanks be to God!”
