We are closing in on that annual phenomenon known as March Madness when 68 teams compete for top honors in college basketball. Athletes, coaches, and fans eagerly await the invitations to see if their school has been included in the Big Dance.
There is also a competition for women’s teams and with Caitlin Clark recently breaking Pistol Pete’s scoring record, these games will likely attract more than the usual attention. As a lifelong Virginia Tech fan, it’s also been exciting to follow the Lady Hokies throughout a very successful season and I’m hoping for more to come in the playoffs.
Although I enjoy watching the sport, I’ve never been much of a basketball player. Being vertically challenged hasn’t helped but beyond that, I’ve never been very athletic.
I still remember an old 16mm film in eighth grade PE class summarizing the rules for this game. In less than 30 minutes, it covered all the major infractions and got far into the weeds as well.
While I could comprehend traveling and double-dribbling, all the backcourt, forecourt, charging, and other technicalities lost this short country boy somewhere around the foul line. How was anyone supposed to remember all those rules while performing as a vital team member? Concentrating on opponents and layups was enough to worry about without the minutia of detail. Never mind that many of these rules seldom come into play, they were all dumped on us in one massive load.
That’s what many feel like when reading the Bible. Leviticus alone has 251 laws and others are listed elsewhere. If one is overwhelmed by basketball rules, how much more so by those of Scripture. Which ones are essential? How can they all be kept?
Most of the Levitical laws were written for priests and involved not only ritual purity but also the necessary sacrifices for violations. Incredibly, by the time Jesus was born, the Jewish leaders had added even more rules erecting safety hedges to keep adherents from even getting near infringement.
It’s no surprise that Jesus addressed this overabundance of rules. In the Sermon on the Mount He actually went beyond the written law to state that even our thoughts and attitudes can be sinful. He told us that it’s not only wrong to commit adultery, but lusting in our hearts is also despicable. He raised the bar even higher!
Thankfully, He helped us greatly by boiling all of the Old Testament laws down to two. The first is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself. Shew! That’s much simpler to remember!
Living out those two rules, however, still proves complicated at times. Knowing how to love individuals can be difficult to determine in specific situations but Jesus’ overarching guidelines surely simplify the matter.
But Jesus did something even better. He took our punishment for breaking all those rules. Because God’s standards are perfection and purity, we have all fallen short in many ways and Jesus Himself, the purest of the pure who never broke a single rule, accepted all penalty for we who have. He died for our sins through which He then extended grace to all who have broken His rules.
Paul tells us that the Old Testament laws were given to help us realize how impossible it is to live up to God’s standards and to help understand our need for Jesus as our substitute. While He still expects us to obey in every way we know, thankfully His grace covers our many failures. In addition, He empowers His followers with His Holy Spirit who helps us keep His commands and do His will.
As we watch the athletes battle for top honors during March Madness, may the rules of basketball remind us of Jesus’ sacrifice to forgive us for breaking God’s laws and may we ask Him to do so. Blessings, George