Be perfect, therefore,
as your heavenly Father is perfect.
- Matthew 5:48
Norm
Cash did a lot in his 17 years playing Major League Baseball. He hit 377 home
runs, an average of nearly 30 per season. He won the American League batting
title in 1961. He received MVP votes in six different seasons, and was a five-time
All-Star. Perhaps most meaningfully to him, he was the starting first baseman
when his Detroit Tigers won the World Series in 1968.
But
for all those achievements, Cash is best remembered today for one at-bat in
1973. On July 15 that season, his Tigers went up against Nolan Ryan and the
California Angels, and Ryan was simply unhittable. Having already thrown his
first career no-hitter earlier that season, Ryan cruised to his second that day
with an even more dominating performance, striking out 17 batters (with 16 of
those coming in the first seven innings, before his arm started to finally
tire). All of Ryan’s trademarks—a fastball that touched 100 mph, a willingness
to throw inside to hitters crowding the plate—were on display that day in a
performance that left the Tigers shaking their head in disbelief.
Cash,
38 years and old and in his penultimate season as a big leaguer, was no
exception, and he proved it in the 6th inning. As Cash stepped to
the plate, umpire Ron Luciano pulled off his mask to make sure he was seeing
correctly. He was—Cash had come to the plate armed not with a Louisville
Slugger, but a table leg. Chuckling, Luciano told Cash he’d have to go get a
real bat. Cash famously replied, “Why? I’m not going to hit him anyway.”
When
you read the words of Jesus from Matthew 5:48—"Be perfect, therefore, as
your heavenly Father is perfect”—it’s easy to feel like Norm Cash, completely outmatched.
Jesus’s command comes in the middle of his Sermon on the Mount, immediately
after a call to love your enemies and right before a reminder to give, fast,
and pray secretly and to value God more than possessions. One teaching after
another about life in the kingdom of God makes that life seem all the more unattainable,
as impossible as hitting a Nolan Ryan fastball.
And
yet, like the umpire on that day in 1973, God calls His children to grab a bat
and step up to the plate anyway. As guilty and flawed as we are, as impossible
as godliness is on our own, God tells us to try. Instead of walking through
life resigned to spiritual and moral failure, instead of compromising His
standards—instead of figuratively stepping to the plate with a table leg—God
calls us to be citizens of the kingdom right now. Hear the words of Jesus and
act on them today. Seek the kingdom of
God and His righteousness today.
Is
perfection possible? Well, no. All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory;
none is righteous but Christ. But being a disciple of Jesus means that, instead
of giving up on holiness altogether, you trust him to do what you cannot and you
serve as best you can. Godliness is not an attainable goal, but it is an
aspiration worth pursuing in Jesus’s name and by his grace. A weary, wicked
world needs Christians willing to humbly try the impossible—so grab a bat.
No comments:
Post a Comment