I have been privileged to watch two great comebacks live. The first one—with which I suspect most readers will not be familiar—is the 2005 UEFA Champions’ League Final between AC Milan and Liverpool FC. Milan scored three goals in the first half and everyone—except Liverpool—assumed the game was over and the second half would be a formality. I was ecstatic. And then the second half began. Long story short, Liverpool tied the game in the second half and won the game on penalties. It has taken me a long time to describe it as “great,” but it was a brilliant effort from Liverpool when almost everyone discounted them.
The second great comeback I suspect is familiar to a lot more people. In Super Bowl LI, the Patriots were down 25 points with 2:17 left in the third quarter. This was the eclipse of the Brady-Belichick dynasty. And then it wasn’t. The Patriots accomplished the greatest Super Bowl comeback and won the game in overtime. Here, we have the benefit of listening to what the Patriots were saying throughout the game. There were basically two main thoughts: “You gotta believe!” and “Let’s get this done.” When everyone considered the Patriots effectively out of the game, they utterly refused to believe what everyone thought was obvious.
It is fascinating to consider what it would have been like to wear a Liverpool jersey or Patriots gear that day, to progress from a growing sense of hopelessness, to a glimmer of hope, to the realization that the game is yours to win, to actually winning. It would be the experience of a lifetime.
Consider what Paul says in Ephesians: “You were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the people of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who previously were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ… So then you are no longer foreigners, but are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord” (Eph. 2:12-13, 19-21).
Paul calls the Ephesians before their conversion “hopeless.” That is true in two ways. Obviously, being outside of the covenants of promise of salvation, they were without the hope of the coming salvation of the Lord. Second, they were without hope in an omnipotent God Who is providentially oriented toward the world. Those who have grown up in the faith often fail to grasp the implications that the non-existence of God would entail. Nietzsche understood it, preached that “God is dead,” and ended up in an insane asylum. The adolescent glee with which others proclaim that God is dead is evidence against their understanding what those words mean. If God does not exist—even if a bunch of small gods do—everything is permitted, but nothing matters.
If this is halftime, then, we are definitely in the hole. Returning to the sound recordings of Super Bowl LI, a Falcons player says, “We’re gonna put 40 points on them,” and his teammate responds, “They’ve got Tom Brady though…”
The proclamation of the Gospel is precisely that, the first glimmer of hope in a world that is otherwise hopeless. God has done something drastic in the world and, because of it, everyone can now be part of the covenant of promise, everyone can have hope for salvation. The game is not merely winnable, it is already won. I had a growing sense of dread watching Liverpool score their first goal and there was a change as soon as the Patriots got their first touchdown. There was a momentum shift. In our case, it is not merely that hopelessness and death can be conquered, it is that they have been conquered. The only question is whether you and I would like to be part of the winning team.
The spiritual life is one big comeback win. We are all infected by sin and therefore participate in the hopelessness and death of a world without God in it. But we also have been brought near to Christ by His blood (cf. Eph. 2:13) and no longer need to be confined by hopelessness or death. Perhaps in the Kingdom we will all share the story of the part we played in the greatest comeback of all time.
Gjergji Evangjeli served as the Editor-In-Chief of The Torch. He had previously served as the Executive Editor and the World News section editor. He is currently pursuing a ThM at the BC School of Theology and Ministry. Gjergji is interested in the patristic period, specifically in the apologists of the second century. He is an ardent defender of the Oxford comma.
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