Coming to the second part of our “Soccer Sorcery” series, let us focus on the “Manager’s role” in the game of Football.
Instruction
…
Unlike Cricket, where the captain is the one in charge of the team, the field manager, or “coach,” is essentially the life essence of the football team. It is he who spends countless hours moulding his team into a winning formation. From training, to strategizing, to even the final team selection, a manager sheds his own “blood and sweat” so that his team and its supporters may taste “sweet success.” Even though he resides on the side line during the actual game, his involvement is substantial! When the TV cameras zoom in, do we not see the vast array of emotions emitting from the coach? Going from agony to ecstasy to anxiety to relief during key moments in the match?
Could there have ever been a greater manager than Christ? Even though many of his disciples came from dramatically different backgrounds, he fashioned them into a winning unit, who would now play with a single goal in mind. Nehemiah may have made men of different professions work side-by-side (a goldsmith and a perfume maker — See Nehemiah 3:8), but what Christ achieved is far greater, as he accomplished the much more difficult task of taking men of “totally different ideologies” and have them work in tandem with each other. Imagine a Taliban terrorist and a US marine settling their differences for a common cause and playing in the same team in a football field in Kabul! Preposterous? Well, that is exactly the picture which comes to mind when we see Matthew (a pro-Roman government tax collector before becoming a disciple — SeeMatt 9:9-13) and Simon the Zealot (violently opposed to Roman government — SeeMark 3:18) together putting their shoulders to the “Gospel wheel”, as it were.
How could Christ do it? By his own exemplary uncompromising lifestyle, which was all about being willing to lay “everything” at the altar for the glory of the Father. This would, of course, also include casting aside petty ideological differences and disagreements. Consider this verse:“…In my first book I told you, Theophilus, about everything Jesus began to do and teach…” (Acts 1:1). Look at the sequencing of the words, “do” precedes “teach”. Right? He would not ask his men to do anything, which he himself would not do before (from the foreword “They call me coach” … thanks Bill Walton)!
Christ also trained up his mostly unschooled disciples in a way that the religious leaders of his day simply marvelled at.
“When the Council saw the boldness of Peter and John and could see that that they were obviously uneducated non-professionals, they were amazed and realized what being with Jesus had done for them”(Acts 4:13 TLB).
Just as the Coach guides his team members in several matters, from the point of regeneration (getting a new life from the Almighty), the Spirit of God’s Son indwells every child of God, and guides him/her in all matters of life (Rom 8:12-16/Gal 4:6).What a privilege we are blessed with to have the wisest mind, and the most loving heart, and the strongest pair of hands guiding us!
A further look at Christ’s strategies would convince us that he put the right men in the “right position”. While on this subject, have you ever pondered on why out of all the apostles, Jesus chose “doubting Thomas,” a person whose name is dubiously synonymous with cynicism, to minister for him in India? Only a rationalist like Thomas could have logically expounded the sound Biblical precepts to men who were well founded in matters of religion (Indians, as always, were quite religious in the first century AD). Their tradition states that having studied the Vedas and seen the Brahmins speaking about the “coming Lamb of God”. So, like a true rationalist, Thomas pointed to all the Vedic proofs relating to Christ with conviction to the religious men of his day. Because of this, the very first people Thomas baptized in his India ministry were in fact the orthodox namboodhiri Brahmins in Palayur, Kerala! For more information on the Vedic Christ-related proofs, clickhere.
Finally, consider the unwitting compliment that the enemies (I repeat, enemies; not friends) of Christ’s disciples paid to them: “these men have turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6), and thus, the picture of history’s greatest coach fully emerges with no shades of grey in sight! Christ enabling his disciples’ accomplishments was not merely about winning the World Cup, but rather the world itself for the master!
By the way, Christian leader, are you faithfully following your master’s footsteps in being an example to people around you (See Titus 2:7)?
Prayer: Father, what a blessing and a privilege it is to always be led in all matters of our lives by the Holy Spirit. Grant us a submissive heart to listen to the promptings of Thy Spirit at all times. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Suresh Manoharan
An unworthy servant
J and SM Ministries
(To access the entire “Soccer Sorcery! Lessons From World Cup Football” mini-series, please click here.)