“Take it for the team!” my junior high basketball coach would holler, hoping to motivate us for our least favorite practice drill – taking the charge. To take a charge, a defensive player works and moves and hustles to establish a position on the court in front of an onrushing offensive player, and then willfully lets that offensive player crash into him (or her). The referee calls a foul on the offensive player, and the defensive team gets the ball back. Taking the charge can be a great equalizer during a game because even the smallest player on the court can gain an advantage for his team by drawing a foul on the biggest player on the court.
Taking the charge is a tough-to-learn basketball fundamental because it requires a player to willfully and purposefully put himself in a position to get clobbered. In junior high, we practiced taking the charge by standing near the basket while all 6 foot-4 inches, 200-plus pounds of the coach came barreling at us, full speed. The lesson he tried drilling into us was that by getting flattened – and there is no way that you can take a charge without getting knocked to the floor – you were benefiting your team. Although charging calls do not happen very often, the momentum of the game can swing dramatically when they do occur.
When God’s wrath and anger against us all for our repeated sins demanded a sacrifice for atonement, He sent His only son Jesus to take the charge for you and for me. But Jesus did not just get knocked down. He was ridiculed, mocked, punched, slapped, beaten, spit on, flogged, and then nailed to a cross to be crucified, where He withered as He mercilessly suffered an excruciating death by suffocation. Isaiah prophesied “He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5, NIV), “beaten and bloodied, so disfigured one would scarcely know he was a person” (Isaiah 52:14, NLT). Christ willfully and purposefully took up His position in front of God’s wrath, so we could all go to heaven. Talk about taking it for His team so we can win.
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Feel free to print a post in a non-commercial publication (like a church newsletter), link to this site or a specific post, or extract up to 100 words from a post on to another site, as long as you provide a link back to the original post and include the following notice: “©, Sean Connolly. All rights reserved. Originally published at http://freerangedevo.blogspot.com/.”
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