Nebraska

WED., JAN. 4, 1984, 6:37 AM
FARM, STUDY

Your discernment is correct, o son. This is the title I pose for today, and, yes, it is a symbolic one, and another evidence that I am present and part of your life, even as you watch the losing (and winning of a national football championship). Nebraska was to be the national champion, and then, in the execution of one play, they were not. I could have titled this Miami and focused on winning, but My emphasis today is on losing.

First, let it be known that winning and losing are an obvious example of the yin and yang principle. In competitive situations (and almost every situation can be perceived as competitive) winning is always accompanied by losing; each causes the other. Every winner eventually loses; and every loser eventually wins. It is the ebb and flow of life.

Winning seems to be preferred, but many important lessons come from losing. Not everyone loves the winner. There can be as much genuine expression of emotion in a defeat as in a victory. There is something challenging about supporting a losing team, even a losing cause.

Now why did I highlight Nebraska? Why couldn’t this have been called Winning and Losing? It could have been, but Nebraska exemplified a very spiritual aspect of this whole issue… and I just chose to be symbolic on this winter morn. Coming into the game Nebraska was the supreme winner. No other team had such a record of consistent wins. Yet they faced a team that had not been as consistent, but also had emerged as a winner in its season’s competition. Two winners matched, and one will emerge as… the loser. Yet the situation at the end offered another possibility – it could be a tie, there would be no winner, and Nebraska would be declared national champion, with just a slightly tarnished crown.

The decision was to try for complete winning. The try failed. There was spirit in the attempt, and spirit in the defense that foiled the try. It was one supreme moment of challenge for both teams. The chance for complete victory was taken, and lost. One could judge Miami’s spirit to be greater because they won. Not necessarily so. Spirit can be as evident in defeat as in victory.

The theological parallel is obvious, but I want to express it, nevertheless. God selected the Jewish people to be winners, a role in which they were not initially comfortable. Throughout the Biblical story they are alternately winners and losers… fulfilling their destiny as God’s people and then succumbing to the temptations that led them away. How could they arise to be winners again after the punishments that resulted from “defeat”. The spirit to be what you can be. When it is there, a loser can again emerge.

But the real parallel is with My life as Jesus (though it is not a straight and true analogy… I like it anyway). It was a time of championship (or so it seemed). My ministry of teaching, preaching, healing, and helping was being judged successful. I entered Jerusalem to shouts of Hosannah! Yet I was seen to be competition, and the Jewish leaders mounted their defense, which them became an offensive. The final play was in Pilate’s court. I could have gone for the tie. I could have been appeasing, so that there was no winner and no loser.

But (and obviously the analogy wobbles) I chose to be the defeated one, even to death on the cross. The Pharisees and the Romans had won. Jesus had lost. But I knew that the ultimate victory could only come out of defeat. I did not go for the tie.