Neal Pollard
If you are a football fan and you see “Madden,” you are most likely to think video games. An annual, updated version of Madden NFL has been released since 1994, and before that it was called “John Madden Football” (from 1988 to 1994). Many of the earlier game players, those up to 2009, would have heard John Madden’s voice providing commentary. However, if you are old enough, you know that the man for whom the ever-popular video game is named was a successful head football coach for the Oakland Raiders from 1969-1978. After that, he was an NFL broadcaster for 30 years for CBS, Fox, ABC, and NBC. Before that, as diehard Madden people can tell you, he was head coach of Hancock Junior College for two years (1962-1963).
What’s the point? Over time, John Madden went from football coach to broadcaster to namesake of one of the most popular video games of all time. “Madden” means one thing to a kid with a Playstation or Xbox and another to his Raiders-loving grandpa who chants “the autumn wind is a pirate blustering in from sea, with a rollicking song he sweeps along swaggering boisterously.”
How many people, ideas, and words appeal to us differently, depending on our age, outlook, or experience. Of all these, take the name “Jesus.” To the child, He is the theme of Bible story books, the answer to every Bible class question, the subject of “Pew Packer” songs. To the skeptic or the searcher, He is an enigmatic religious figure who may be seen only as a teacher or a good man. To the nominal Christian, He is a shadowy, mysterious figure, a virtual stranger.
But to one who has walked with Him and is in an ever-deepening relationship, He is “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named…” (Eph. 1:21). He is the highly exalted one, bestowed with “the name which is above every name” (Phil. 2:9). “He is Lord of all” (Acts 10:36). He is the Christ, the Son of God (John 20:31). He is unchanging, and therefore, “the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8). But, the longer and better I know Him, my connection to Him grows more intimate.
How well do you know Jesus? I don’t know how far back you go with Him, but each day should mean knowing Him better and seeing Him in a different light. God wants Him to be, “Christ in you, the hope of glory…” so that He can “present every man complete in Christ” (Col. 1:27,28).
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