Jesus CAN Play Rugby

When I first started playing rugby about four years ago, I was challenged from the outset by a cast of characters completely unlike any I had every seen before. Having grown up in a relatively conservative, church-going household, I had come to be a pretty zealous Christian who knew little of compromise when it came to the things of God. How I came to a place where I was willing to give a culture like rugby’s a try is a long story that you’ll learn throughout several posts. Suffice it to say, attending that first practice was a big step for me.

Honestly, I was an obnoxious Bible thumper. While in college, I felt the call to ministry and set about trying to fill my head with “knowledge” and became quite the little theologian, but it was all at the expense of my understanding about the true motivation behind why Jesus did what He did. Through a series of disappointing relationships and experiences with churches that would have turned any non-Christian away from the faith entirely, I found myself on the outside looking in. I don’t mean that I’d given up my faith, but my faith in the system that had developed over the last two millennia was about gone. At the encouragement of a friend during a time when I was trying to get fit and lose weight, I tried rugby which met that need and almost immediately filled the void that had been created by my lack of involvement in church. As frustrating as it was to endure the disappointment that I had, I can look back now with understanding as to why God allowed me to see things the way He did.

I was amazed from the beginning. Not only did they welcome my wife and me into the club with open arms, but when I didn’t show up to practice for some reason, I got a phone call! Not the next week or even the next day, but in most cases it was on the same night. We were invited to social events, people seemed to take the time to really get to know us and understand who we were and where we were coming from. I felt like for the first time in a very long time that I was accepted truly for who I was without judgment.

It was during this time, that God began to pull back the veil for me. He had allowed me, and rightfully so, to be shielded from the world and all of its “diversity.” I had a lot of growing to do, and before rugby, I needed a life separate that would allow my faith to grow and not be impeded by any kind of mixed messages. However, I had become complacent in my faith and was resting on my proverbial laurels. My faith had stagnated to the point where it felt routine and dry, but… I was comfortable, unchallenged. Rugby changed all of that in an instant.

Growing up, I had learned about atheists, now I was sharing the field with them. After church, my friends and I would go to lunch and talk about politics while looking down our noses at liberals; now, I found myself talking about my work week over a beer with them. I’d once heard a rumor about a guy in my high school that might be homosexual; my first rugby match was against Dallas’ gay men’s rugby club. I realized very quickly that if I wanted to fit into this culture, I’d have to become a lot more open-minded and fast! But, how was I supposed to do this without compromising everything I had come to believe in?

Well, it wasn’t easy. Yes, there were compromises early on. I was naïve, and didn’t understand at first that most people in the world don’t need you to be like them, and the vast majority doesn’t want politically correct facades that hide who you really are. Moreover, I learned quickly that it was okay to be who I am, a Bible believing, Jesus loving guy from Texas! The overwhelming majority of people want, even need, the genuine article. More importantly, people want to be valued, no matter your worldview. They want to know that you care about them, whoever they are.

That was it; that’s what I saw when He pulled back the veil. Instead of liberals and gays and atheists, I began to see people. I finally saw people the way Jesus sees them. Just like me, every person longs for acceptance, understanding, compassion, and love. Instead of viewing the world as an “us” versus “them” scenario, I began to understand that I was just a poor and blind beggar trying to point other poor and blind beggars toward the bread crumbs; the catch is that those bread crumbs are actually a magnificent feast I’d kept for myself for too long!

Yes, I still believe that Jesus is the only way to get to Heaven (John 14:6). Yes, I still believe that without Him, we’re doomed to eternal suffering (Romans 6:23). Now more than ever I understand that it is important that I keep company with other who are faithful to God (2 Cor 6:14). But, now there’s a sense of urgency in my life. Now, I don’t view sharing my faith as a duty that I have to God; instead I delight in living a life of love toward others that will pull them alongside me as I walk with Jesus.

Here’s the deal. Theologically speaking, Christ’s death on the cross assuaged the wrath of God that was our due as a result of the sin in our lives, but that’s not why He died. When Jesus died, God’s law was fulfilled so we wouldn’t have to answer to it eternally, but that’s not why the Father sacrificed His only Son. Yes, Jesus now sits at the Father’s right hand in glory because of the work He did on the cross, but that’s not why He did it. All of the fancy sounding theological explanations of the suffering, death, resurrection, atonement, propitiation, etc… that you’ve heard about and had pounded into your brain your whole life are true, assuming of course you were taught the truth, but none of those are the reason Jesus died. Rugby, of all things, taught me that Jesus died for people.

Does He care about our sin? Absolutely! Jesus hates sin! But, He hates it so much because it’s what keeps us far from Him. At the end of the day, He is motivated, more than anything else, by the fact that He loves people. He loves sinners and saints. He loves the gay and the straight. He loves the believer and the non-believer. He loves people. Jesus died for people.

We can discuss all day long the scope of the atonement, and debate until we’re blue in the face about each of the 5 points of Calvinism and whether they’re scriptural or not, but Jesus died because of His deep and abiding love for people and His desire to spend eternity with us.