On Any Given Sunday

“Any Given Sunday.”

Hebrews 10:11-18

On any given Sunday is a term familiar to those who enjoy professional football. This term refers to the competition that goes beyond what the so-called experts say about anyone team. This is a term that speaks of intangibles. Things like heart, character and fear of defeat. There are many teams that are superior on paper than the one they are playing on any particular Sunday.

However, one thing is for sure that once these teams line up across from one another on the field of battle facts and figures can be thrown out the window. When these men line up and look into the eyes of their opponent they try to stare into the soul of the other. Intimidation takes place. Adrenaline begins to flow, breathing becomes rapid, sweat builds and then the clash takes place. For sixty minutes bodies are flung into one another and it isn’t always the one who is in the best condition that wins. It is the one who, has the most heart, makes the least mistakes and digs down deep into their soul.

On that day when Jesus was hanging on the Cross, Satan thought he had everything in hand. He thought he had the better team on paper. On paper he appeared to be the victor. Satan was on his way to the pay window to collect his winnings, humanity.

However, something happened on his way to the cash window. You see when a championship team is built a number of things happen. First the scouts go around the country and look for what they feel are the best players at each position and also whom they think will be able to come together as a team. This is what Jesus did when he assembled the apostles.

On draft day those players are picked and courted and come together in early July for training camp. When training camp is over the regular season opens and that is when the real fun starts. You see the media across the country picks the winner of the Super Bowl from the information gathered from training camp and draft day. Then their predictions are played out over the season.

On any given Sunday any team can beat another team due to many different factors. Injuries, mistakes, turnovers, missed opportunities. Satan thought he had won the Super Bowl because Jesus had suffered a career ending injury. No one returns from the Cross, or so he thought. Jesus lay strewn out on the playing field, lifeless. Satan thought he would collect humanity and be the champion. Wait, there is another saying in sports, “that’s why the game is played.” The game is played because on any given Sunday the supposed outcome can change. That is exactly what happened on this very Sunday.

1. The Son’s Work. (Hebrews 10:11-13)

The preacher returns to his basic premise from Psalm 110:1-4, an eternal priest like Melchizedek who was to remain seated until his enemies were put under his subjection. Jesus already having offered his sacrifice, he was able to sit down.

Take for instance, Morgan Rowe. As a young boy he was sitting on a moving tractor at his father’s fence company in Georgia when he fell and was dragged under the machine. His left arm was ripped completely off in the accident and his right arm was badly mangled. Doctors were able to restore some of the use of the right arm, but the left one was lost. After three months in the hospital the boy was released with a medical bill totaling $30,000. (Remember. This incident took place nearly twenty years ago. Inflation has made that $30,000 look smaller to us than it was then.)

This story would probably have lost its newsworthiness right then and there had this been someone besides Morgan Rowe. You see, the boy set out to pay his own bill! As soon as he could walk without any help, he scoured the roadsides picking up cans and bottles. He collected and sold newspapers.

His mother said in an interview, “He has gathered hundreds of cans, thousands of can, I don’t know how many. He started out with Coke bottles. Then he read . . . about recycling cans. I thought he’d give up after awhile, but he’s kept it up. He’s still doing it.”

Morgan first paid off the $455 ambulance bill. Then he put $2500 down on the hospital bill. His family raised another $9000 toward the hospital bill.

Then in the month of July following the accident, someone mentioned him to the Bear Archery Company in Florida that makes aluminum arrows. Bear donated its scrap metal to help. As the boy’s story made headlines, contributions from 2,000 people began pouring in. Donations totaled $25,000, more than enough to pay the bill. The extra money was used to finance additional operations in an effort to restore more mobility to Morgan’s remaining arm and hand.