Are You a Fan or a Follower?
We are just a few hours away from the kickoff of Super Bowl LV (55), arguably the biggest sporting event of the year. This year’s game is between the defending Super Bowl champions Kansas City Chiefs and the “home team” Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It is a quarterback matchup between Patrick Mahomes, last year’s Super Bowl MVP, and Tom Brady, who needs six fingers to show off his Super Bowl titles.
Not only will an estimated one hundred million viewers watch the game on television, the amount of food and beverage consumed is second only to Thanksgiving for food consumed in one day. According to the National Chicken Council, Americans will consume well in excess of one billion chicken wings on Super Bowl Sunday. Those wings, along with cold cut subs, pizza, chili, and potato chips and dip, will be washed down with more than 300 million gallons of beer. Not surprisingly, antacid sales dramatically increase on the Monday following the big game.
You might be a fan of one of the two teams, maybe you are just enjoy the game of football, it could be you watch the game just to see the commercials, or possibly you are looking forward to the halftime show headlining Grammy Award-winning The Weeknd. Unlike last year, there will be no stripper poles this year. It was in the early 1990s that pop music acts began to perform at halftime, first with New Kids On The Block in 1991 and then Gloria Estefan the following year, but it wasn’t until Michael Jackson took the stage in 1993 that the halftime show began to morph into the spectacle it is today. Did you know that the Grambling State University Marching Band has played in the most halftime shows, six times over four decades?
During this year’s Super Bowl, ordinary people will turn fanatical and pour every ounce of their existence into cheering for their team. (Hopefully watching the game either just at home or in small gatherings while social distancing and wearing masks.) Not only that, many will be dressed from head to toe in their team’s logo gear. But when the game is over, and the last chicken wing is eaten and last swig of beer swallowed, these fanatics become ordinary people again, with ordinary live, ordinary families, ordinary jobs. The word “fan,” shortened version of fanatic, is defined as an “enthusiastic devotee (usually as a spectator) or an ardent admirer (of a person).”
Sadly, many of us relate to Jesus that same way. For an hour or so when we go to church or small group meetings we are like those fans during the Super Bowl; we go wild for Jesus, but when the service is over, we go home and become “normal” again.
Fans cheer while followers learn from their teacher and then help in spreading the good news of that teacher. Jesus calls us to be more than fans. He calls us to be followers (disciples). The dictionary defines a disciple as “a pupil or follower of any teacher or school of learning, religion, art, etc. and one who accepts and assists in spreading the doctrine of that teacher.” So in other words, a disciple of Jesus is someone who seeks His guidance, follows His plans, and then shares that goodness with everyone they meet.
So, today, be a fan of your favorite team and cheer like mad during the Super Bowl. Also, commit yourself to being a disciple of Jesus, allowing Him to change you and in the process begin to make you more like Him. Don’t just be a fan of Jesus, be His follower!