By Doug Redford
When coronavirus began to upend our lifestyles in 2020, sports were impacted (like most everything else). The baseball season was significantly shortened. Other major sporting events like the Triple Crown horse races, the Indianapolis 500, the college basketball tournament, and the pro basketball playoffs were canceled or postponed until a later time.
In their place, many networks began telecasting various sporting events from the past. They showed boxing matches featuring Muhammad Ali, World Series games from past years, and previous Super Bowls. One Sunday night, Super Bowl III, played between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Jets, was telecast. That game was made famous by Jets’ quarterback Joe Namath’s “guarantee” that the Jets would beat the heavily favored Colts, which they did.
It’s still fun to watch past games like these, even though we may know the outcome.
Followers of Jesus also know the outcome. We know how world history will end. We know where this is all headed, even though at times “this” can be very chaotic, disturbing, and discouraging.
The apostle John, banished to an island called Patmos, was given a view of the future unlike anything ever witnessed by a human being. That vision became the basis of Revelation, the Bible’s final book, which describes the grand finale awaiting faithful Christians. Though followers of Jesus may appear to be losers or underdogs in a world where their values and beliefs are often scorned, we are “guaranteed” a triumph—an eternity with the Lord and his people. That outcome is certain; as the angel in Revelation told John, “These words are trustworthy and true” (Revelation 21:5). They still are.
Here at Communion, we remember our Savior’s death for us, and we also look forward to his return (1 Corinthians 11:26). John did the same at the beginning of Revelation . . . remembering the one “who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood” and who is also “coming with the clouds” when “every eye will see him” (Revelation 1:5, 7). John knew history’s outcome, and so do we.
Doug Redford has served in the preaching ministry, as an editor of adult Sunday school curriculum, and as a Bible college professor. Now retired, he continues to write and speak as opportunities come.
Good!