- This article was written for Christians in Sport. -
Writing on the Olympic Games in Beijing the Times journalist Simon Barnes commented, ‘Greatness. Sport can bring us such a thing and do it more vividly than anything else on earth’. He wrote on the wonderful way that sport can redefine our understanding of the possible, citing Olympic champion and World record holder Yelena Isinbayeva; ‘a beautiful woman, a superb athlete, flying into the night sky, soaring like the human spirit, a perfect symbol of the hope we have for ourselves and for the world. Isinbayeva told us that all things are possible, that we can leave the base earth behind and soar to unimaginable levels of greatness.’
This is one of the most incredible gifts of sport isn’t it and surely why throughout human history (and long before 2500 years ago when the Greeks started to write on the virtues of sport) ‘sport’ was igniting the imagination of the populus? It stretches our imaginations, challenges our preconceptions of ‘limits’, pushes back our boundaries of how great life can be. Little wonder then that sports writers like Simon Barnes grasp at the metaphors of religious language to describe sport at its best.
Given that many resort to religious language of ‘soaring like a human spirit’ to describe sport at it’s best, it is strange that so many today are so disaffected and unenthusiastic about the Christian religion. We describe our best football managers as ‘Messiah’s’ and yet are bored by talk of a real Messiah and we compare the best moments of sport to ‘heaven on earth’ and yet find talk of heaven itself a dull conversation stopper. Why is this? Shouldn’t the claim at the heart of Christianity that the doors of heaven have been flung open-wide through Jesus’ death and resurrection at least capture our imagination?
Perhaps it’s because as some comment that eternal life isn’t very appealing, ‘when your life is hard and mundane then why would you want it to go on for eternity?’ Good point, if that’s what eternal life is supposed to be like, but fortunately it’s not. The Bible speaks about heaven or eternal life in two ways; through comparison and metaphor.
In comparison it takes the best things in life and then has the audacity to say that they are as nothing when considered alongside heaven: Jesus says that ‘the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he has and bought it’ (Matthew 13:45-46) and another time he asks us ‘what good is it for a man to gain the whole world and yet forfeit his soul (the real you that lives for eternity)’ (Mark 8:36). The point is clear – heaven is so wonderful that anything in this world no matter how great it is pails into insignificance when compared to heaven, in fact all the best things in this world taken together when compared with heaven don’t stack up.
By metaphor the Bible makes a similar point; it takes the best things we can think of and extends them in metaphor to try and stretch our understanding of how good life can be. Often people say things like ‘I don’t want to sit on a cloud in a nighty’ but this is to completely misunderstand what the metaphors are doing. We’re told that heaven is like the greatest party the universe could ever host (Luke 14:15-16), it’s an experience of incredible intimacy with the God who made you where God himself will wipe away your tears (Revelation 21:4) and it’s as if the whole universe were to join together in one song filling every heart with unspeakable joy (Revelation 15:2-4).
Some of those comparisons may grab you and some may not. Some of the metaphors may capture your imagination and some may not. But please don’t let your limited horizons squeeze your understanding of heaven and trick you into disinterest. Instead like those great moments of sport (but oh in such a greater way!) realize that heaven should push back your boundaries and redefine your concept of greatness. For if heaven’s that important that the Son of God was prepared to die to make it available to you – don’t you think you should be excited about it?!