Continuing on the Road to Capernaum: Extremely Belated Super Bowl Thoughts and GOAT Conversations

Note: This post follows up on thoughts I've had about the Bible passage in Mark 9:33-37 that were outlined in an earlier blog post explaining the name of my blog!

Every year when the Super Bowl rolls around, I'm reminded of this conversation about greatness that often involves certain players and exists across most sports. The "GOAT" conversation (GOAT = Greatest of All Time) is always hanging in the air, prepared to descend and cause division between fans. So last fall when the Lakers won the NBA championship, the comparisons were stirred up again between LeBron James and Michael Jordan. With the Bucs vanquishing the Chiefs this year in the Super Bowl, more articles have been written about why Tom Brady is the greatest of all time, a story that has followed him for the last 10 years in some way, shape, or form. Those articles more often than not involve some comparison between Brady and other players. With soccer, the modern comparison exists between Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Similar conversations happen in the world of tennis with Nadal, Federer, and Djokovic. And similar comparisons can be had in many more arenas of life.

What intrigues me is not that these conversations about greatness exist but that they come up so often. Many sports fans are seemingly wired to desire an answer to this question of "Who is the best?" and the answer is sought after and talked about frequently. There's this weird air of needing certainty, needing a clearly defined order to things that seems to characterize conversations that arise in response to this question. And that's the thing: what are teams doing now that the NFL season is over and a champion has been crowned? Teams have reset, after players and fans relished the moment for a bit, and then...attention turns to next season. The slate is wiped clean and everything you and your team has done means little to critics and fans.

It's been often said that the sports world is a "what have you done for me lately" world. Everyone is quick to forget what you accomplished last season and you need to prove it time and time again. This vaguely reminds me of how the Israelites in the Bible are constantly in this cycle of remembering and forgetting what God has done for them. You won the Super Bowl last year? Well, better do it again this year. God, you brought us out of slavery in Egypt? Well, we're going to grumble and complain because...well, what have you done for us lately? In the Old Testament, God's instructions to his people revolve around the word "remember". They are to remember who God is and what God has done in their lives. They are also to remember the laws that God has given them, laws that were meant to help them live in a holy way that set them apart from other groups or nations. 

Like I said, it's not an equal comparison at all because there is a distinct difference between human nature and God's character but I'm reminded of an interview that Tom Brady did after his first Super Bowl win against the, at the time, St. Louis Rams during the 2001 season. He shares a story about how an equipment manager from his college days at Michigan told him that his favorite ring (or championship) was always the next one. Brady then co-opted that phrase, telling the interviewer that never going back to the Super Bowl never even crossed his mind. In his mind, what was his favorite ring? The next one. That has stuck with me to this day because fans, sports media personalities, and players have pretty much agreed that Brady is the GOAT in the football world. That competitive fire within Brady is embraced and maybe even seen as a bit maniacal. Yet, that phrase of "the next one" being his favorite ring tells us something about how he views himself. There's still room to improve, there's still room to be better and win more. Heck, he was recently interviewed on Good Morning America about his love for football and he said that "I've got a little sickness in me that still wants to throw a freaking spiral, you know what I mean?" There's just an air of constant dissatisfaction or discontent with what he's already done and a yearning for more, regardless of how much he's already accomplished.

This air of dissatisfaction has always intrigued me as a follower of Jesus. On Sunday mornings, my family and I would spend time pondering how true satisfaction addresses the true needs of the human heart. We heard and continue to hear about how it can never be found in things or accomplishments like sports championships or career earnings. Instead, this restful and peace-giving satisfaction was to be found in relationship with God as a part of his family. So as my mornings would end and we'd travel back home after church, that message followed me into Sunday afternoons which is when I'd go and watch Patriots games. And what happened almost immediately most Sundays? One pass from Brady that slipped through a receiver's hands would spark that dissatisfaction again and a loss would actually derail my entire week at school. To draw comparisons back to Christianity, it was almost like I had my own version of shalom that was disrupted, my own version of how the world ought to be ("The Patriots ought to win") that was shattered. Shalom describes a state of wholeness and peace that comes with things being restored to the way they ought to be. It is a word that is often used to describe the reality that Jesus proclaimed and displayed during his time on earth, a reality of restored relationships between people, between people and God, and between people and the rest of creation. When it comes to sports, you could say that fans adopt some version of shalom when they hinge their satisfaction on the performance of their favorite team or player. You could say the birth of GOAT conversations comes from this deep desire or longing for things to be how they ought to be, rightly ordered, rightly ranked in relationship with one another. With sports, that longing gets funneled into a rather inconsequential arena in some ways but it is nonetheless there.

There is literally a story in the Bible about this conversation about greatness as I've mentioned in one of my first blog posts. Here's the scene: Jesus is traveling with his disciples and has just told them for the first time about how he needs to die and rise from the dead. He questions them about what they did during their travels but they don't tell him that they spent the entire trip arguing about which one of them was the greatest. Jesus, who seems to know that they were having this conversation, then gives them his own version of greatness when he says, "If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all." Here is the rest of that text from Mark 9:33–37.

33 And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, "What were you discussing on the way?" 34 But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. 35 And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, "If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all." 36 And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37 "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me."

I'm struck by this story because Jesus not only gives his definition of greatness but he shows us the definition. He places a child in the middle of his disciples (he centers the marginalized). He then takes the child up in his arms, embracing, identifying with, and loving the child. And the words he says after affirm this as he shows his disciples what greatness truly is. 

So this definition of greatness from Jesus stands in stark contrast to at least the notions of greatness that are typically championed in sports. The GOAT in sports is often the one with the most accomplishments, the most prolific player (again, a hotly debated title comes with some hotly debated criteria). This definition exists in a "never satisfied" arena or reality where teams and players are constantly chasing the next _______. And Jesus' definition of greatness? Serving humbly and loving not to “prove it” but in a way that leads us to finding Jesus already present amidst the people we serve who might have the least accomplishments and are the least prolific by our world's standards.

Moreover, Jesus embodied this definition of greatness. He gave up what some might call status and privilege to be present with and near to the outcasts of society. And he served by giving not just his things but his very life. If the disciples made power rankings back then, they'd have dropped him all the way to the bottom of their list in the span of a weekend. And yet Jesus' upside-down embodiment of greatness is what I believe opens the door for things to be restored to the way they ought to be, achieving true shalom, and "deliver(ing) us from the present evil age..." (Galatians 1:4). Our GOAT conversations don't usually involve the best servant leaders of all time, the "top 10 meekest people", or the widow who gave her two copper coins (see Mark 12:42). Yet if Jesus' definition of greatness and moreover his example and embodiment of greatness is one characterized by humility, servanthood, and love, I've had to ask myself this question: what if this tells us something not only about how to live our lives but also something about where and with whom Jesus is already present? Could Jesus be present with people who in our eyes don't share our faith? Could he be already and more present outside of the institutional church in America than within it? I think honestly in this season, these questions have reminded me that many of us who profess Christianity in the United States might have it all backwards. 

At this point, it really isn't new but something isn't right when following Jesus is something that means holding onto power and wielding it in a way to create a Christian nation. I'm not going to write about Christian nationalism or nation-ism here but both ideas have been squarely in view in the past year especially with the presidential election back in November and the capitol insurrection back in January. Both ideas align the person of Jesus with certain political agendas that then must be upheld in order for the church to be following Jesus faithfully and doing its job. I've personally lamented the lack of "cultural influence" that the church might have right now in the states but a friend reminded me this year that that's really never been the calling card of people who follow Jesus. As I thought about what they said, I was forced to give up my own ideas of how the church and my own work as a campus minister should function. For me personally, I've so often wanted to lead from the front. Many of us young people have opened our eyes to the hard realities that exist in this country this year and amidst that, I've wanted to have all the answers, speak to students from a place of strength and full knowledge, and be the one who people go to for guidance. And yet I've been forced every day to give up self-centered desires for status and power because I believe that Jesus is the one who is the answer, who embodied strength through weakness and death on a cross, and who is the one others need guidance and life from. I think his life, death, and resurrection were totally subversive in every way and I think there's a lot of freedom in that for Christians because it means that the Holy Spirit, the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead and connects us with the thoughts of God, works through us to subvert worldly conventions. I don't think it leads us to dominate and wield power in the same way that the Pharisees (who thought they could bring about the restoration of Israel by cleansing the nation and kicking out sinners) or Romans did (who ruled over and oppressed Jews and Christians). 

The church has never been called to wield influence and power in the same way as the world. In fact, Christians have been called to follow in Jesus' footsteps in humility and weakness that allows God's power to be fully on display.  In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul and Timothy use the term "ambassadors for Christ" to describe themselves. I think this identity entails that followers of Jesus should be experiencing at least some friction between earthly systems and the system that is the kingdom of God. I know for me, I experience friction most often when I seek to be an ambassador for myself while also being an ambassador for Christ. And what is that friction? Oftentimes, it's friction that I think surfaces because we as those who profess faith in Jesus still pursue greatness away from the cross while Jesus moves towards the cross. And it's a friction that we'll feel acutely as we turn around (repentance!) and seek to also move towards the cross.