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A Guy’s Guide to Hebrews: A Perfect Record (4:1-16)  Recently pitcher Dallas Braden of the Oakland Athletics baseball team entered the history books. Despite entering the 2010 season with a career record of 14 wins and 21 losses Braden managed to accomplish a feat that only 18 other pitches have accomplished in the last 130 years. On May 9th, in a game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Braden pitched a perfect game. He allowed no hits, walked no batters, and hit no batters. Braden faced 27 batters, and 27 batters never reached base. Braden’s feat is truly an amazing one. Of the thousands of players that have stood atop a pitching mound there are still more people that have orbited the moon than have thrown a perfect game. Some of the names of pitches to have thrown a perfect game are legendary such as Cy Young, Sandy Koufax, Randy Johnson, Jim Bunning and Catfish Hunter. Others such as David Cone and Mark Buehrle are less than legendary, but are still well known. Then there are the others like Braden who are little known aside from throwing a perfect game. Whether or not pitching a perfect game was the one career highlight for a player, or a bullet point in a list of long accomplishments there have been many of the games greatest who have been unable to accomplish the feat. Pitching a perfect game is a rare feat. Depending on who is running the numbers the odds vary, but most people put the odds of pitching a perfect game between 1 in 33,000 and 1 in 50,000. Those are some pretty long odds, but in comparison to attempting to live a sinless life they are great odds. It just doesn’t happen. Living a sinless life is like pitching a perfect game every time. Every now and then we might have a especially spiritual day, but when it comes to consistently battling sin we are abject failures. Most of the time we think about Jesus, we think about Him as God. Yet, we often forget that he was 100% man as well. As a man he was subject to the same temptations we are, and they looked just as good to Him as they often do to us. Yet, Christ was able to resist those urges and desires that strain toward sin. He finished His life with a perfect record. That is why when we have times of weakness and failure we can use words like grace and mercy with confidence. Christ lived life just as we live it. He knows the temptations, and he was victorious over them. Questions for Discussion/Reflection 1. Are there temptations or struggles in your life that you need grace and mercy for? 2. The passage says we can approach the throne of God confidently, why would he need to say that? 3. How should it impact our walk with God that Christ is able to sympathize with us? Staff Writer: Aaron Sharp |
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