I like watching
football, if it’s the local, ‘non-league’ sort, rather than the professional
game, but when it comes to other sports, I tend to be quite indifferent. If it’s on TV when I walk into a room, I’ll
watch it, but I wouldn’t scour the schedules and switch on specially to watch an
event. I certainly have no real interest
in horse-racing. Nevertheless, a few
years ago I found myself in front of a TV set at the time of the Cheltenham
Gold Cup. Amidst the shouts of
encouragement from my fellow-watchers (futile, of course, apart from giving
vent to their desire for the profitable maturity of the investments they had
made with the bookmaker), I sat quietly intrigued by one small detail.
At the fifth
fence, one of the horses, Idle Talk, was nudged, and fell, unseating his
rider. Once the remainder of the field
had cleared, the jockey got up and walked away unscathed, but the horse
continued in the race. On and on they
went, for another lap of the course and more.
Idle Talk was still up with the leaders at the finish and, I believe,
crossed the line in second place.
The horse had been
well-schooled, and clearly knew what was expected of him. However, so far as the race itself and the TV
commentators were concerned, it was as if he didn’t exist. Indeed, to the winning jockey he was a
definite nuisance, getting in the way of his triumphant run-in to the
finish. Idle Talk certainly didn’t merit
a place in the official results, and those who were unfortunate enough to bet
on him had seen the last of their money.
And all because of one little slip, as a result of which he arrived at
the finish without one essential – his rider.
As I mused on this
incident in the succeeding days, I called to mind two verses of Scripture. In his first letter to the Corinthians, St
Paul compared our path through life to running a race. Pointing out that, in a race, only one
competitor wins the prize, he encourages us not to run the race of life
aimlessly, but to run it so as not to be disqualified from winning that
imperishable wreath, eternal life (I Cor 9:24-27.) And we see that same need to aim carefully for
success illustrated by one of our Lord’s parables. Jesus spoke of a man who accepted an
unexpected invitation to attend a wedding feast (Matt. 22:9ff.) The king came in to see the guests, and
noticed that this man didn’t have the appropriate dress. The man’s fate was to be ejected
ignominiously. He had reached the
winning post, but was found not to qualify – the very thing that Paul advises
us to avoid.
So, how do we qualify in the race for eternal life? Simply, in the words of the baptism service, to 'believe and trust in' our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It really is as simple as that; He has done the hard work - all we have to do is trust Him.
When you next see
a horse and rider on the roads (not an uncommon sight even in this age of the
universal motor car), join me in thinking of yourself as the horse. Let’s take great care not to unseat Jesus the
Jockey, lest we should arrive at the winning post without a rider, like Idle
Talk in the Gold Cup!
