baddies

When Saturday afternoon comes round and we trot off to the football, to the excitement and passion that is generated by a 25,000 crowd, there are always some who have paid their hard earned money in order to shout and moan at the opposition and the man with the whistle.  I heard of a Tottenham Hotspur fanthat not only had a season ticket to watch his own side play but also had one at his arch-enemy’s club, Arsenal. His seat was just behind the director’s box and he spent the whole afternoon hurling insults at the Arsenal board!

When my family was much younger we enjoyed watching the wrestling that is now WWE. The good guys – Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior or Brutus the Barber Beefcake (he cut off the hair of his opponents with a pair of shears given half the chance) - were always pitted against the baddies, the Undertaker or some other such bizarrely named character.  Before that I would watch the British version with my dad on Saturday afternoons before I was old enough to go to the football. The crunch match that always stands out for me was Jackie ‘Mr TV’ Pallo versus Mick McManus. Why was this all so much fun? Because you stood up for the ‘good’ guy and booed the bad guy who would bend the rules any way he could to win.

There are bad guys in life. People do people stuff and not all of it is good and kind. People can be cruel, unjust, abusive and down right mean to one another.

In Jesus’ day the land was occupied by the Romans. They took taxes from the people through Jewish collaborators – the tax collectors. How they were hated. Jesus loved them and called one to follow him and stayed at the home of another. The Romans held power by sheer force and ruled through fear. A Roman soldier could insist that you carried his pack for him for one mile.

Jesus gave us one of the hardest of all teachings. He said in Matthew 5 v44-45, ‘But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.’ Jesus told his followers that when someone causes you to go one mile then voluntarily – as a free man – walk an extra mile and thus show that you are not under fear or ruled by injustice. God wants His people to be free. When unforgiveness rules our hearts it causes them to become hardened and we are not free. As we forgive, our hearts are freed to love like God loves who sends his favour on all men and women. Of course wrong doing needs to be put right and the guilty brought to account but let us set a course by following Jesus that will keep us free from bitterness.