Part of the Team (Friday Devotional)

 

Just then some men came, carrying a paralyzed man on a bed. They were trying to bring him in and lay him before Jesus; but finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the middle of the crowd in front of Jesus.

- Luke 5:18-19

One of the things I appreciate most about baseball is how one player cannot make all the difference between winning and losing. In basketball, LeBron James can singlehandedly turn a mediocre franchise into a title contender. In football, we saw how adding Tom Brady transformed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from a middling team into a Super Bowl champion in one season. Yet in baseball, Mike Trout—baseball’s best player for 10 years—has never won a playoff game. Despite all his individual heroics, he needs his teammates to succeed.

When we think about faith in Christ, we often regard it as an individual pursuit. We emphasize how your decision to follow God is not one anybody else can make for you, we talk about your “personal relationship with Jesus,” and in moments of confession and reflection, we talk about how this is “just between you and the Lord.” Seen through the American lens of rugged individualism, faith becomes a solo endeavor, a sport where one star—you—makes all the difference.

But the Bible tells a different story, one in which your faith is shaped by a community of brothers and sisters. Jesus didn’t call one outstanding apprentice, but 12 flawed disciples. Jesus didn’t pass the gospel on to his right hand man, but to a body of believers. And time and time again, from Jairus’s daughter to the centurion’s servant to the paralyzed man in the verses above, we see people coming to Jesus as advocates, begging him to help those they love the most. Sometimes, as U2 so memorably put it, you can’t make it on your own.

In a culture that prizes individual achievement, there is a never-ending temptation to think that Christian community is optional, that the church is a crutch to lean on or a luxury to opt out of rather than a family you belong to. But Scripture is clear that worship, evangelism, service, and fellowship—the fundamental activities of the believer—are things we do together, not things you do alone. There are no indispensable superstars in the church, only teammates—and we need each other to succeed.