Over the last three years, this issue of whether God cares who wins has surfaced around the Super 
Bowl, primarily because of the presence of Christians in those games. The February 2013 issue of Sports Illustrated featured the question, “Does God care who wins the Super Bowl?” at the top of the front cover over a picture of praying Ray Lewis. This year, Russell Wilson provoked the question with his comments after the Seahawks stunning defeat of the Packers in the NFC Championship game. One commentator put it this way –
Russell Wilson, the celebrated 26-year-old Seattle Seahawks quarterback, all but declared his team’s stunning and historic 28-22 overtime victory over the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship Game on Sunday, a miracle. He told reporter Peter King that a divine influence made Sunday’s barnburner so exciting –
“That’s God setting it up, to make it so dramatic, so rewarding, so special.” (For more, click here.)
The following week, on his weekly radio show, Rogers was asked a question about God’s intervention in the outcome of football games, to which he answered:
“I don’t think God cares a whole lot about the outcome,” Rodgers said. “He cares about the people involved, but I don’t think he’s a big football fan.” (For more, click here.)
Fellow NFL quarterback, Tom Brady, waded into the waters –
“Look at the attention I get: It’s because I throw a football. But that’s what society values. That’s not what God values. He didn’t invent the game. We did. I have some hand-eye coordination, and I can throw the ball. I don’t think that matters to God.” (For more, click here.)
Reading the responses to these articles demonstrates the variety of beliefs people hold, the confusion people have about God, and the emotion this question raises.
To hopefully help clarify the issues and stimulate thinking rather than shutting down debate, we have written on this subject before:
Does God Care Who Wins? Part 1
Does God Care Who Wins? Part 2
Does God Care Who Wins? Part 3
Does God Care Who Wins? Part 4
I bring it up today because of the outcome of the game this past Sunday. Christians are often quoted after a victory about God being involved in that victory but seem silent after a defeat. We are left thinking God doesn’t care about the losers or even that those he once favored with a victory must have done something wrong to fall out of favor. This often leads to a faulty understanding of the Gospel, as Ed Usinski reiterates in this Desiring God blog,
Hovering over this discussion (Does God Care who wins?) is a predominant but twisted American value long ago absorbed into our sports culture itself: Winning is everything in life, and losing is for losers. Winning is the ultimate worldly good in the sports culture; therefore, since God does “good” toward those who do “good,” the team reflecting the most “goodness” should win — or so the thinking generally goes.
Though most people might cringe at the unsophisticated nature of this argument, a recent Pew Religion Research Institute article reports that 48% of Americans believe athletes of faith are rewarded with good health and success, and the number jumps above 60% for professing Protestant Americans, regardless of racial background. We assume that God will bless the righteous with scoreboard victories and leave the less righteous sorting through their own limitations — both physically and spiritually.
What I long for is for Christian athletes to correct this distortion of the Gospel. I long for them to wrestle with what the Scriptures actually say about the sovereignty of God and his favor. I long for them to come to hold to a high view of the sovereignty of God. (This view is not just mine but is one that I forged in my days of playing professional golf, where I wrestled with what the Scriptures say about God’s sovereignty and my experience on the golf course.) I long for a generation of athletes to declare God’s goodness and greatness just as boldly in defeat as they do in victory. I long for athletes, in their bold speech in defeat, to show that God’s favor is not based on works or merit or on the greatness of someone’s faith. I want them to live out the reality that God’s favor is based on their oneness to Jesus Christ, as the apostle Paul so boldly reminds us in Ephesians 1:3 – “Praise be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every (emphasis added) spiritual blessing in Christ.”
I long for this with what I hope is a godly jealous for the Gospel and the glory of its hero, Jesus Christ. I long for this so that the sports culture in which we live would correct rather than enhance this misunderstanding of the Gospel because I am convinced that God cares who wins and loses with greater passion than any of the players or fans.
He just has a very different goal for that passion!
