I love an underdog. Always have.
I’m GenX, so my list includes old ones. Rudy. Hoosiers. Miracle?!
I suppose some recent ones I’ve seen aren’t even that new. The Hunger Games. Or Inside Out, when Joy finally recognizes the importance of Sadness.
I love watching someone who is unlikely to win, sticks to their craft with perseverance and hope, overcomes the odds, and wins. Never gets old.
Perhaps my love for underdog movies is, in part, because of my commitment to life in recovery from addiction. I have been at the bottom with nothing left to hope for and worked my way toward sobriety by the surrender of my life to a higher power through the 12 steps. I’ve experienced the slow transformation that comes with perseverance and hope. God’s love helped transform my heart into new life in Christ.
Maybe it isn’t the stuff that ends up in a thrilling underdog movie, but that’s real life, isn’t it?
As I read through the New Testament, I notice that Jesus seems to favor the underdogs, too. Jesus notices those who are suffering or excluded and he pays attention to them. I’ve lost count of how many people Jesus helps who struggle with demons in the Gospel of Mark (Mark 5:1-20).
There’s one man who has been living among the tombs, so feared he is of his wild outbursts, but Jesus stays to banish the evil spirits.
There is a woman who is getting water from a well who has lived with five men and has been ostracized to the point that she must get water outside of the “usual” times for the women of the village (John 4:1-42). Jesus crosses cultural barriers to talk to her and challenge her to live a new way.
When a woman is to be stoned to death for sin (John 8:1-11), Jesus stops the execution and says that the person who is without sin may cast the first stone. They walk away, for not one has not sinned.
There is a woman who has had her menstrual cycle for 12 years and has been considered “unclean”, who reaches out to Jesus and touches his clothes. Jesus doesn’t berate her but honors her faith (Matt 9:20-22, Mark 5:25-34, Luke 8:43-48).
See, Jesus cares about those who struggle. Jesus pushed back on the authorities who made “the rules” or traditions more important than caring for one’s neighbor. Jesus reminds people over and over again that the most important thing is to love God and love others.
The rules in scripture help us to live in a way that honors God and others, but it can become a way to keep people out when the letter of the law becomes a weapon against others. That’s what Jesus is challenging … if your laws, traditions, biases, prejudice get in the way of offering love and grace to your neighbor, then turn again to God for a transformed heart.
I guess I say this today because I’ve seen a lot of people hurt by the church institutions. There are rules and doctrines that have been used to hurt people and to push people away. Those experiences are not from Jesus. Jesus reaches out to those who hurt and is always inviting them into a new relationship with God through Christ.
If you are looking for hope, mercy, transformation, forgive-ness and spiritual healing, I invite you to get to know Jesus. Jesus cares about you. Reach out to me, or find a faith home in which to hear the good news.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish by may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him (John 3:16-17).”
Every underdog has a home in Christ. His love is overwhelmingly for you and not against you.