Fantasy Football

Last week in examining my Fantasy Football team, I discovered that, although I had three of the top running backs in the game, my team was lacking in other areas and I needed to participate in a trade in order to make my team more well rounded. I examined the team of the friend I was trading with and checked and double-checked his player's stats online and also in asking others how I might make this trade both fair and worth my while. As an organizer of a Fantasy Football team, I need to assure that my team is composed of the best players in order that I may take the victory in my league.

And he went up on the mountain
and called to him those whom he desired,
and they came to him (v. 13).

In managing his Fantasy Fishing team in Mark 3, Jesus employs a different strategy than I use for my Fantasy team. Jesus calls to himself those whom he desires, but those whom he desires are hardly a team of the best of the best. Jesus calls both fishermen and tax collectors, hardly the type of people who would help Jesus create a big following by winning over others.

Calvin, in his Harmony of the Gospels , says, "I am sure that Mark means by this expression that [the disciples] were chosen for their great and honoured task, not on their own worth, but by the sheer grace of Christ. If you reckon that they were chosen as being more outstanding than the rest, this will not square with Judas." In organizing his team, Jesus chooses his players not on their own merit, but by God's merit, showing God's sufficiency. Whereas this strategy is not likely to win many Fantasy Football games, it is definitely to be considered when one is organizing ministries in the church. The work we do in the church is, after all, God's work. The church's success lies not in successful programming or notable church members. The church's success lies in the heart of this passage - Jesus' call and the disciples' response to that call. May we take heed of Jesus' call to discipleship and respond with joy and obedience.

[Originially written in October 2006 as a 300-word essay for "Ethical Implications of the Synoptic Gospels." Please contact Jenny for a complete bibliography.]

Calvin, John. A Harmony of the Gospels, Vol. 1 . p. 166.