Preseason Practice

Seeing similarities in Scripture, spirituality, and sports

01/06/2025

Matthew 4:12-17, 23-25 When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled:  Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death light has arisen. From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say, "Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand."

Are you excited about Arkansas Razorback basketball this year since we recruited John Calipari as the new head coach? Even if you are not, the Associated Press was excited and ranked the Razorbacks 23rd in the nation in the preseason polls. But I think that excitement has sobered up since our first regular season game against Tennessee, where we lost 52 – 76.

In other words, in the preseason we just play a lot of warm-up games against easier opponents. It is in the regular season when we meet the giants of the hardcourt and also see what we are really made of. If you step back and survey a college basketball teams annual schedule, you will discover four distinct seasons.

Think about it: first, there is the preseason practice games; second you enter the regular season where every game counts; third you hope to get into the 64-team playoffs (the Big Dance and win like we did in 1994). And fourthly the off-season, where you get a little bit of rest but also do a lot of recruiting to build next year’s team. The hardcourt Hogs just left the easy preseason and entered the brutal regular season and we got our teeth kicked in. It’s the regular season that really matters.

In the gospel today, we read about Jesus moving from the preseason of his ministry as the Messiah into the regular season. What does that mean? The first two lines of today’s gospel from Mt 4:12-13 read: “When [Jesus] heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali.”

You see, in the first 3 chapters (and first 11 verses of chapter 4) of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus has been in his preseason. Matthew recounts Jesus’ birth, his baptism by John, and temptation in the desert. But that was all preliminary preseason practice and relatively easy-peasy. Today, at Mt 4:12, Jesus begins the brutal regular season of public ministry, the competition would get a lot harder, and ultimately, Jesus would have more than his teeth kicked in.

In fact, if we step back and survey Matthew’s entire gospel from a bird’s eye view, we see Jesus’ regular season of ministry begins at Mt 4:12 and goes all the way through Mt 25. And in chapters 26 and 27, Jesus enters the postseason playoffs. How so? Well, those two chapters recount the Last Supper and Jesus’ passion and death.

And it looked to most observers that Jesus had lost in the championship game, just like most people thought Duke would beat Arkansas back in 1994. But just like Scotty Thurman hit that 3-point shot to give the Razorbacks the lead, so Jesus’ resurrection showed he finally defeated sin and death. And Matthew’s last chapter, 28, is all about the resurrection and recruiting new disciples, in other words, the off-season.

May I just draw out one application of this big picture approach to Scripture, spirituality, and sports? Each Christian life should also have four distinct seasons, like we see for the Hogs and for Jesus. We have a preseason practice where we learn drills and discipleship going to school or seminary or the convent.

The regular season begins when we choose a vocation: marriage, priesthood, religious life, or the consecrated single life (yes, that’s a real vocation). The playoffs is life after your spouse dies or you retire from active ministry and it can be an extremely grueling and painful period. An elderly friend says: “Getting old ain’t for sissies,” and neither is the playoffs.

And some people may fear death and feel like that means we lost the championship game to the Duke Blue Devils. But “au contraire mon frere!” just as the moment when all looks lost (death), Jesus hits that winning 3-point shot and give us the victor’s crown, that is, the resurrection and eternal life. And that will be infinitely sweeter than winning the NCAA Division I national championship.

Today, too many young people are stuck in the easy preseason practice, and don’t get married till they are 30 or later. Many of our seminarians have had careers and are thus called “delayed vocations.” It can be tempting to stay in the preseason and only play practice games that don’t count. But you were put here on earth to get into the regular season.

And the elderly can feel that what they do as widows or in retirement doesn’t matter, or they are just wasting time. But they are in the playoffs. And it’s time to buckle down spiritually because every game matters and you should finish strong. Every team give it their all, and their best, in the playoffs.

So, yes, I am excited about the hardcourt Hogs’ season under Coach Calipari, even if we did taste blood in our mouth after the first game. And I am excited about the regular season of Christian life even if we get knocked down a few times. As John Shedd said in 1928, “A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!