The Holy Huddle
Matthew 28:19-20, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and, lo, I am with you always even to the end of the age.”
This passage of Scripture is very memorable. Many people, even a lot of non-Christians, have heard this command that was given by Jesus to His disciples in Galilee, after His resurrection. It is called by most people “the Great Commission”, but it is used by a lot of agnostics, and non-believers as a weapon against Christianity. Many non-believers say that we (Christians) have this command from our leader, and since many Christians don’t take this command seriously why should they take anything we say seriously.
As Christians, we like to stay in what my preacher calls a “Holy Huddle” instead of breaking up, and going out and facing the world. Since, I played football; the term “Holy Huddle” struck home with me because I have been in a few huddles, and I want to look at a few drawbacks to staying in the huddle.
First of all, if you stay in the huddle for too long you get penalized, and you lose yardage. You assemble a huddle to devise, or get, a play; when the team is in the huddle the quarterback is in charge. He doesn’t ask the wide-receiver what play he wants to run. The quarterback is solely in charge of calling the plays, and our quarterback is Jesus Christ; the play that He has called is “go into all the world…” Once the quarterback calls the play then everyone else on the team must hurry to the line to get the play off, or they run the risk of being penalized yardage; and losing ground.
The same thing happens when we take too long to run the play that has already been called by Jesus Christ. We get penalized by the world that is watching because they see our lazy, lackluster, attitudes; and say to themselves, if not out loud, why should we be in a hurry to listen to you. What you’re saying does not seem that important to you. Why should it be important to us?
A second reason why it’s bad to stay in a huddle is because when you’re in the huddle no one on the outside knows what you’re saying. (While that’s good in football, it’s terrible in Christianity.) Christ does not want us to only talk among ourselves, and share secrets with each other, but He wants us to soak into the very fiber of all people, so that they can feel His love and warmth. We’re not, as Christians, supposed to form a separatist club, and associate only with other Christians. Jesus said in Acts 1:8, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea; and Samaria, and even to the remotest parts of the earth.” We have to get out of our huddle to face the world and run the play that He has called.
A third reason that we must break up our huddle is so that we can be free to move, and free to play the game. Most huddles are only 5 or 6 feet in diameter. Everybody is crammed close together, so that they can hear the play, but nobody has the freedom to move around very much. But, when we break the huddle, and go out to run the play then there is a lot of room. There may be 25-50 feet of distance between some players. With that much freedom all of the players are by themselves to do what they need to do to make the play more successful, and once you line up no individual player is any more important than any other. If a lineman misses a blocking assignment or if a receiver runs the wrong route; or if the running back runs into the quarterback then the entire play might be a failure; but when everybody does exactly what they’re supposed to do the end result is a touchdown.
Jesus is depending on His teammates to do their jobs, and successfully run the play He called!
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