By Jessica Brodie
I know this sounds silly, but have you ever played the game hot potato? We used to play it in elementary school.
The idea of the game is that you and a group of people sit in a circle, and the music plays. Someone holds an object that is called the hot potato, and you’re supposed to pass it quickly around the circle, never holding onto it too long. After all, it’s hot, so you don’t get to keep it all to yourself or you’ll burn your hands! When the music stops, whoever is holding the hot potato is “out,” and the game moves on.
In a sense, the gifts we receive from God—grace and salvation—and the way we’re supposed to use those gifts remind me of the hot potato game.
We received the saving truth of the gospel, but we’re not supposed to keep that to ourselves. Like a hot potato, we’re supposed to pass it around to other people—as quickly as possible, really—so everyone gets a chance.
It’s the same way with grace. God gives us grace, forgiveness, and mercy in spite of our sinful natures, but it’s not just for us, and it’s not just a one-way street, either. We’re supposed to extend that grace, forgiveness, and mercy right back to other people, never just hoarding it for ourselves.
As Jesus told Peter in Matthew 18:21-23, if someone wrongs us but seeks grace and forgiveness, we’re supposed to forgive them—not just seven times but 77 times. That number, 77, is special in the Jewish culture and actually is intended to express infinity. Jesus is talking about a never-ending supply of grace and forgiveness that we’re supposed to extend to others in gratitude and memory of the grace that God so freely extends to us.
It's not only for us, that truth of the gospel and the grace that is God‘s love. We’re not supposed to bask in that knowledge and keep it to ourselves. We want to make heaven crowded, after all! Jesus wants us to swing those doors wide open and let everyone know this truth and this love, something that is available to every single person if only they believe.
I wonder: If we were to think of it like the game of hot potato, would that have any impact? We don’t want to hold all that truth and grace to ourselves lest, when the music stops, we’ve never let it pass from our hands to someone else’s. Otherwise, we’re out (whatever that means in a spiritual context).
Sometimes we worry that we don’t know how to share the gospel. But here’s the comforting truth: We don’t have to worry whether or not we’re doing a good job at this. We just have to share it—and trust the Holy Spirit to open up their hearts to the truth. If they have ears to hear, they will hear it.
Sharing the gospel sometimes comes through words. Sometimes it’s modeling the gospel and being a living example of Jesus, and sometimes it’s just loving so extravagantly, always crediting that love to Christ, that sears the gospel truth into someone else’s soul in a way they’ll never forget.
It doesn’t matter how we share it. We just need to share it.
And we are to share grace, too. We can be so judgmental of other people, yet we forget there are things we do in our own lives that are not fully in alignment with the Lord. We wouldn’t want the Lord to judge us harshly, so we should not do the same to others. Likewise, when someone wrongs us, sometimes we hold onto a grudge for weeks, years, even an entire lifetime. We forget that (maybe—unbelievers do convert) perhaps this person is another brother or sister in Christ. We forget that we are part of the same body, with Jesus Christ as our head, and forget that they are beloved creations of God. And instead of offering grace and forgiveness, we cling to that grudge until our own hearts are hardened in the process.
Can you imagine if God clung to all the grudges he could hold against us over our lifetime? No, that would be a horrible fate.
So play some metaphorical “hot potato” with God’s gospel truth and God‘s grace. And remember that every time you do, you are widening God‘s kingdom evermore.
Amen and amen.
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