The Ideal Substitute

Each year, the NBA presents the Sixth Man of the Year Award. If you’re curious, players like Lamar Odom, Jason Terry, Ty Lawson, and J.R. Smith are among the candidates for this year’s award. This award is presented to a player who does not start, yet his contributions to the team are invaluable. In other words, the Sixth Man Award will be presented to the best substitute: the player who replaces starters and maintains the same level of productivity.

As I thought about the Sixth Man Award, I realized that Jesus is the ideal substitute. I went to biblegateway.com last night, and the verse included with this email was on the home page. The message is the same – Jesus is the ideal substitute. He was our substitute, bearing the sin and agony we deserved, just so we could live. We were in the starting lineup for destruction, but He took our place and opened the door to eternal life.

Aren’t you glad you didn’t get what you really deserved? Imagine how miserable life would be if we had to pay the price for sin. Unbearable, right? Thank you Jesus for being our substitute!

Unparalleled Effort

Admittedly, I’ve watched a lot of basketball over the past couple of weeks. After each game, the commentators choose the most outstanding player, sometimes from each team. Often, the award goes to the player with the most points, rebounds, assists, or the best combination of these statistics. In other words, the player whose effort exceeds his or her teammates receives the award.

As I thought about this, I couldn’t help thinking about how often Jesus’ effort exceeded His teammates’ (the disciples). This is very apparent in the verse cited above, where the disciples are shocked when they see Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman. His disciples didn’t want to minister to this woman, but Jesus did. He was so involved in this interaction that He didn’t want to eat the food the disciples brought Him. He was already full from His effort to win a soul for the Kingdom.

Aren’t you glad that Jesus will go farther than others? The reason we enjoy salvation, joy, and peace is because of His unparalleled effort – He did what others wouldn’t. For that reason, He gets my vote for MVP of the world!