Easter for SportspeopleSample

The Curtain

There are several excellent podcasts available now where high achievers in both sports and wider culture, are interviewed about what it takes to perform. The most popular podcasts in the world are all in this genre of self-help and performance tips as our culture strives towards success. As sportspeople, we are completely saturated in this performance culture – ranked in league tables, Strava badges, and reams of statistics and data.

The curtain of the temple, torn in two as Jesus breathed his last breath, reminds us that as followers of Jesus, we do not need to swim in these cultural waters of constant self-improvement and performance.

The curtain was a huge, thick piece of material which separated the people from the Holy of Holies, the place where God’s presence specifically was found. Only one person, the High Priest, was allowed into the holy place, once a year, and only then with a blood sacrifice, an atonement for sin.

The curtain symbolised very clearly the separation between sinful people and a holy God. But now, as Jesus died on the cross, taking our sins, it was torn in two, from top to bottom. Matthew is making it clear for us that God is the one who tore this massive, thick curtain. It was he who has now made it possible for us to be in the presence of God, to be in a relationship with God, because of Jesus’ death on the cross.

In one podcast they always ask each guest for their non-negotiables to success and nearly every guest says a variation of ‘hard work’ as one of their mantras. Whilst in our sport there is of course some truth there, in our Christian lives it is a wicked lie to think that by hard work or our own efforts, we can have a relationship with the King of all Kings.

Magnificently though, as we meditate on the cross this Easter, we see the curtain torn in two and it means we now have access to God, our Father, the Creator of all. We can be in a relationship with him because of what He has done, not because of anything we have done.

So, this can bring us real joy as we play. We can play free from the fear of if we have performed well enough in our Christian lives, because we know that on the cross every one of our sins, past, present, and future was totally paid for by Jesus. He has made it possible for us to have a relationship with him, for us to be in his presence. So, we can approach God, in prayer, freely today about anything going on in our sport and our lives – we have access into the holy place because of what Christ has done.

Let us delight and thank God for this, this Easter week.

Let's pray

Dear Lord,

Thank you that you have made it possible for us to be in relationship with you through the death of Jesus on the cross. We are sorry for when we forget that there is nothing we can do to be right with you, except trust in the Lord Jesus.

Help us to delight in this, as we play and compete in our sport and play with freedom, knowing that we are loved and in relationship with you,

Amen.