A Crown No One Can Ever Take Away

Have you noticed how cyclical sports are? Each sport has its season, and annually commentary abounds about who’s going to win this year’s championship. This is fun and all – unless you root for a team that never assembles a championship-level squad. But even if your team does win it all, the celebration is so short-lived.

 

For instance, how many of us can name the Super Bowl champs from two years ago? Some of us have already forgotten who won it last year. This year the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers have rekindled memories of old rivalries in the World Series. But can you remember who took the World Series crown last year? How about two or three years ago?

 

As King Solomon wrote thousands of years ago, “Meaningless! Meaningless!... Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless” (Ecclesiastes 1:2). You’d think his team just lost the championship game!

 

Not to be as pessimistic as the ancient Israelite king, but that’s a fact of life. The excitement and euphoria of winning an athletic crown, for competitors and fans alike, is so fleeting. As the apostle James observed, “What is your life? You are a mist (vapor) that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (James 4:14). Here today and gone tomorrow.

In addition to the World Series – which might already be over by the time you read this, since the Dodgers had taken a 2-0 lead – college football is halfway to determining who the competing teams will be in the first-ever championship playoff; the NFL also is at the midpoint of its season; and the NBA and NHL seasons have just started. The quest for new championships is underway, while even recent champions are all but forgotten. The glory of their crowns is already fading.

 

The apostle Paul, who apparently was very familiar with athletic competitions, offered this perspective:

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).

 

There’s a lot that could be unpacked from those verses, but two things stand out for me. The first is that while competitors vie for crowns that will not last, as followers of Jesus we are striving for crowns that will last forever. Earthly championships may earn crowns, trophies and medals that can fill display cases and gather dust. But the crowns God will award to those who worshipped and served Him on earth will never tarnish, become dust collectors, or be forgotten. Another translation says, “…They do it for a crown that is perishable, but we do it for a crown that is imperishable.”

 

The second point is the zeal and determination that Paul had for the mission God had given him. He said, “I beat my body and make it my slave so that…I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” The apostle wasn’t talking about losing his salvation or being denied eternal life; he was referring to his desire to finish well, not to wander to the sidelines before his spiritual journey had come to an end.

 

To be candid, I’m not clear exactly what these eternal crowns will be like. There’s been much said and written about them, but I doubt anyone will know for certain until we stand before the Lord. But the Scriptures make clear that we will definitely receive crowns. “Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award me on that day – and not only to me, but also to those who have longed for His appearing” (2 Timothy 4:8).

 

Too often we hear about prominent Christian leaders who succumb to sin and fall into disgrace. The “prize” they anticipated might be denied them; they have become disqualified. Failing to resist the temptations of this temporal life, the consequences they face will be eternal.

 

Over the coming weeks I’ll be right there, cheering for my teams and hoping for victory. It would be nice to see one or more earn another championship crown. But far more important is the crown God might present to me one day. Proverbs 16:31 sys, “Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained in the way of righteousness.” I’m already accumulating the gray hair. My goal is the crown that is, as the New Living Translation expresses it, “gained by living a godly life."

‘Trophies! Trophies! Get Your Trophies Here!’

Can you remember receiving a trophy for the first time? I played two years of Little League baseball, but don’t recall ever getting a trophy. I wasn’t a very good player – and my team wasn’t particularly good, either. They didn’t present trophies for mediocre.

I think my first official trophy came when I was in a Saturday morning youth bowling league. I was 13 or 14. I had bowled a high game of about 160, and with my handicap, it was the best for anyone that day. Other than that, I don’t recall winning many trophies during my pre-adult years.

These days, of course, trophies are standard equipment for any and every kids’ sport. They call them “participation trophies.” Doesn’t matter how good you are – or if you’re good at all. You get a trophy just the same; just keep breathing and showing up for the competitions. Maybe they should hand out all the trophies on the first day and get it over with: “Trophies, trophies! Get your trophies here!” It sure could save parents a lot of time and money.

I’ll not debate the pros and cons of the everybody-gets-a-trophy philosophy. But thinking about trophies, what comes to mind is how excited we feel when we receive them, and how quickly the thrill subsides. In fact, that bowling trophy I mentioned? I have no idea where it is. I suspect my mother tossed it in the trash one day while I was away at college. Something to do in her “spare” time, I suppose.

During my career, I’ve received several plaques representing recognition for a magazine I was editing or articles I wrote. But I don’t know where those are, either. If I’d won a Pulitzer Prize, a Nobel Prize, or something of similar magnitude, I probably could locate that. But I didn’t, so that’s not a “problem” for me. Even though professional or personal honors are nice, life goes on and awards eventually become relegated to the increasingly distant past.

The Bible offers a different perspective, however. It speaks in terms of “trophies” we receive not in this life, but the next. In His “sermon on the mount,” Jesus didn’t use the term trophies, but easily could have when He said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19-20). In the next verse, He explained why: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Competition was a metaphor the apostle Paul often used in writing to Jesus followers in various cities. In a letter to the church in Philippi, he stated, “…I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me…. One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14). Paul had a “trophy” in mind, but not one some human “academy” would award.

Later, addressing his protégé, Timothy, Paul again employed a sports analogy in summing his life and ministry. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award me on that day – and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7-8). The “trophy” Paul envisioned was of far greater value and importance than any Nobel or Pulitzer, Oscar or Emmy.

These passages urge us to keep a heavenly, eternal perspective as well. Whether we’re young or old, accolades and achievements of this life will fade, often as quickly as they appeared. “Moths” and “rust” will tarnish them over time. Even being commended for serving God and His people, while gratifying, will pale in comparison to what we will see and hear when standing before our Lord at “trophy time.”

On that day, Jesus said, diligent and selfless devotion and service will be acknowledged when God tells us, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!” (Matthew 25:21). That will be something worth cherishing in our eternal trophy case!