April 10, 2017 - The Franchise Player

This is the time of year that a lot of talk centers around both the upcoming NFL and NBA drafts. Teams are hoping to land the immediate impact players; and for those picking players early, they are hoping for that player that will carry their team… be the “franchise player.”

“In professional sports, a franchise player is an athlete who is not simply the best player on their team, but a player that the team can build their "franchise" (team) around for the foreseeable future.” (Wikipedia)

As we have entered into “passion week” to celebrate what Christ did for us, I want to direct our attention to when Christ entered into Jerusalem. John 12 records the entrance and how the crowd responded to the news that their “franchise player” was on His way… Yes, that is how they initially viewed Him, as the one that would fix their problems!

Verse 13 tells us that they cried out the word “Hosanna” which means “to save or bring victory now.” These folks were cheering and quite taken back when Christ appeared on a “young donkey” (vs 14) signifying that He was riding into Jerusalem in peace… not to immediately take the earthly throne. (I think this explains why they could turn so quickly to cry out “crucify Him!”)

Yet Christ was here to fulfill the promise that was made at His birth as the angels proclaimed there would be “peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2:14)

This week focus on who Christ is; He is truly our “franchise player” in that He is the only One that was capable of saving Team Humanity! Let’s be more passionate (during Passion Week) about Him than we will be about who our favorite sports team will draft… and how about doing something really crazy and talking about Him to people?