Jesus - the Great "Underdog"?

            One of the great stories coming out of the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament (“March Madness”) is the Florida Gulf Coast University Team. There are four regions, each with 16 teams, playing off for an opportunity to go to the Final Four, when a national champion will be determined. Each region seeds their teams between 1 and 16. FGCU started as a number 15 seed. This means they had to begin the tournament by playing the number 2 seed (Georgetown). The higher seeded teams are generally expected to win, but upsets can happen. And FGCU did upset Georgetown, playing with an enthusiasm that makes them fun to watch and even to root for. While upsets do happen in this tournament, putting two together is extremely rare. But in fact, FGCU won their next game against 7^th-seeded San Diego State University. A 15^th-seed making to the “sweet 16” has never happened before. FGCU is the first. Today there are four teams from each region left. They play this coming weekend to narrow it to eight and then four – one winner from each region. Will FGCU - a team that lost to the University of Maine team before Christmas - continue its unlikely run at the championship…? Even now very few people expect them to go all the way. Every game they play, they are the underdog. Every game they play they have to prove they deserve to be in the tournament. We will have to wait until this weekend to see.

            2000 years ago Jesus was the ultimate underdog – at least from a human perspective. When the Jewish leaders made up their minds that He had to go, and began plotting against Him, the “odds” were definitely not in His favor. When the people were turned by the leaders, His “chances” sank even lower. Then the Roman government got involved, and determined Jesus’ “end”. When Pilate gave in to calls of “Crucify Him!”, Jesus really had no chance at all. When He was crucified, He was alone. Even His “friends” had abandoned Him. One of His closest disciples – Peter – had denied Him. The world could look at Jesus and easily give up on Him. In fact, it did. Everyone “counted Him out”. As far as they were concerned, His death on the cross was final, and irreversible. After all, why should Jesus be any different than every other human being who ever lived? In the end, the grave is seeded #1. It always wins, right? But Jesus was no common “underdog”. He won a victory that no one expected… one that no one else has ever won: He was raised from the dead by God the Father. And this is the foundation of our faith. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians that if Christ was not raised, then our faith is futile and we are still in our sins.

            I do not gamble, nor do I advocate it. But you could say I’ve “bet my life” on Jesus’ resurrection. I have totally trusted in His victory on the cross and over death when He rose again on the third day. And nothing more in the universe could be closer to a “sure thing” than these facts. My hope for eternity rests in Him. Paul writes that “if only in this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.” (1 Corinthians 15:19). A Christian is one who has given up trusting in anything and everything else and has come to trust in Christ alone for hope in this life and in eternity. While the world sees Him as the underdog – ultimately defeated by death like the rest of us – we see Him as the greatest victor in the universe. I pray that you have this hope in you, because our victory comes through His. His victory is the power that gives us new life. Thanks be to God for what He has done for us!

1 Corinthians 15:55-57 – ⁵⁵ “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” ⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:17 – ¹⁷ “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

Romans 10:8-11 – ⁸ “But what does it say? ‘The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,’ that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: ⁹ That, if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. ¹¹ As the Scripture says, ‘Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.’”

 PRAYER: “I praise You, Father, for raising Jesus Your Son from the dead, and for the victory won there over death. Thank You for giving me faith to believe, and for the foundation in reality for that belief. Thank You that the tomb of Jesus is empty, and the new life that is mine because I am in Christ. May this Easter season remind me of all the joys of Your victory.  In Jesus’ name, AMEN.”

Jesus Christ is Lord!

Scott