For three
and a half years I served as a pastor of a Lutheran church on Hilton Head Island , S.C.
And many of
them play golf. Hilton Head Island is 12
miles long and 5 miles wide. It also
features a couple of dozen world-class golf courses. There are that many more off island in the community
of Bluffton. Hilton Head Island is also
home for an annual PGA tour event, usually held after the Masters. This
is a PGA tour event and the locals love to come out and watch the best players
in the world tee it up. The Harbor Town golf course is one of the most beautiful in the country. While living in
Hilton Head I had the opportunity to see the tournament in person.
I got to thinking the other day of an event I attended while living in Hilton Head. I was one of more than 650 people gathered for the
Christian Heritage Breakfast to hear the testimony of a champion golfer, Larry
Mize.
He’s a
fellow who had a wonderful career on the PGA tour. But in the golfing world he’ll always be
known as the one who sank a 140-foot chip shot during a playoff with Greg Norman
to win the biggest tournament of them all – The Masters.
We sat
listening, totally captivated by Mize’s description of how he snatched victory
from the man who was considered to be golf’s best player at that time. But after having told us about his marvelous
and surprising feat, Mize made this statement: “I am known as the man who
won the Masters. But I’d rather be known
as the man who was won by The Master, Jesus Christ, who died on the
cross to save me from death and give me eternal life.”
How are you
known by your friends, neighbors and the community? Recognized as a successful business person? Praised by others as a faithful community
volunteer? Lauded as the best golfer at
the club?
Or are you
known as a Christian business person?
Are you identified as a follower of Jesus who happens to do
volunteer work? At the club are you
known as the missionary who does some of his best work walking down the
18th fairway?
In the time
of Jesus, a master was recognized as one who had absolute ownership and
uncontrolled power. Your master held
your life in the palm of his hand.
In Jesus,
we have a Master like no other. He does
not consider us His servants and subjects.
He calls us His friends. He
treats us perfectly. He knows us
completely. Jesus knows our names, our
thoughts, and those times when trouble pays us a call. He treats us with compassion, giving us just
what we need when we need it. He will
never let us slip from His hands. He is
all this and even more.
He is the
Master who lays down His life for His servants, suffering their punishment,
paying their penalty and freeing them from the guilt of sin and the power of
death. Jesus does all this while showing
His mighty power – willingly laying down His life and taking it up again.
This, my
friends, is the kind of Master we joyfully worship, serve and adore. Can there be anything better than being
known, like Larry Mize, as a child of the Master?
