Praying for the Underdog

Rooting for the Underdog

Sports lull - dead of winter- Football over, hockey and basketball - waiting for spring. When I don’t care about the teams involved, I usually root for the underdog.

March Madness vs. CFB Playoff - small schools have a chance vs. Alabama winning every year

Why do we root for the underdog? Surveys - 2/3 of people do. Reasons:

Increases excitement, entertainment vs blowout

We relate to the underdog - we don’t win all the time

We find more joy in unexpected success - makes us happier

Schadenfreude - we unconsciously experience pleasure at the misfortune of others, especially those who seem to have advantages

When an underdog team has an upset victory, it feels like justice—feels like a defeat of the dominant forces that control a sport or the world. We like to “stick it to the man.”

We seem to be wired this way. In fact, it might be part of our creation in the image of God—a God whom the Scriptures reveal is always for the underdog!

Jesus bets it all on the underdogs

In fact, in this week’s text in Luke, we hear Jesus praying a kind of prayer for underdogs—except here the stakes are much higher than a championship.

Indeed, the team Jesus roots for is the one that takes on the seemingly undefeated forces of evil in the world. captained by Satan. It’s a plucky band of 72 disciples who are rookies with zero experience, no payroll, no previous wins, little equipment, and no uniforms.

And yet, Jesus bets it all on this team, knowing that they will be victorious, not only because they are connected to him, to his Father, and to the power of the Holy Spirit, but because they follow the strategy he lays out for them.

It’s an unconventional strategy, counterintuitive, and requires a lot of sweat, pain, and patience—but it’s the only way to victory. To understand it, to be on that team, we need to listen to him!

The Underdog Strategy

To understand this underdog strategy, we have to go back to verse 10 - Sending of these 70 (or 72 depending on manuscript). Who are they?

Number significant - 12 disciples (12 Tribes of Israel); 70/72 (nations of Jewish tradition) or 70 prophetic elders of Numbers 11 (plus two, Eldad and Medad)

Second generation disciples - those who had responded to Jesus’ preaching

Mission - similar to that of the 12 in 9:1-6 - go to places Jesus intended to go as his representatives

Take nothing with them

Proclaim and demonstrate three things:

Peace - giving and receiving hospitality (v. 7-8)

Heal the sick - demonstrate power of the kingdom to heal and restore (as Jesus did)

Proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God - that it has “come near”

Stay only where welcomed - not trying to force it. Shake off the dust. In other words, don’t focus on the opponent’s strength but find the soft spots in the defense—focus on those who will hear and respond.

Woes: Consequences for those who don’t respond - Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum - Galilean towns - they will “go down to Hades” in the upset.

Jesus’ authority now given to the 70 - v. 16 “Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”

Transfiguration - “Listen to him” now expanded to include “Listen to the ones whom he sends.” They are now included on the team.

The Results: An (Expected) Upset!

70 return with joy: v. 17 - “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!”

Progress: 9:37-43 - disciples couldn’t cast out a demon - now learning and winning!

This is a major upset for them over the kingdom of Satan.

Jesus sees it as such - v. 18 “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning” - not a comment on a Satan origin story, but a statement of victory over the forces of evil he commands—knocking the self-proclaimed top dog off the dog house!

Disciples of Jesus learning how to win like Jesus, not using the enemy’s tactics.

Back to Luke 4:1-13 - Jesus tempted to win the world with conventional tactics:

Turn stones to bread - enticing people by meeting their physical needs instead of their deeper needs for transformation and redemption

Jump off the temple - fame and superhero strength

Bow for the kingdoms - compromise for political power

Jesus recognizes that he would be playing Satan’s game—the game that many people play to try and get ahead and win the world’s admiration and support

These are the ways in which the “wise and intelligent” of the world try to win—Church has often been sucked into it, wanting to be the dominant political powerhouse, the perpetual winner.

But Jesus is always for the underdog—those who follow his way:

The way of peace and hospitality, paying attention to the deeper needs of people—realizing that people need more than bread alone, as Jesus reminded Satan.

The way of humility and service—not seeking fame or quick fixes but glorifying God and not putting him to the test to try and gain things that ultimately don’t matter—it’s about seeking the healing and wholeness of others rather than elevating ourselves.

The way of obedience to God’s kingdom, and not bowing down to the ways of the kingdoms and nations of this world who are but a breath.

In other words, the way to bring the upset to the ways of this world is to celebrate being the underdog and acting accordingly—to be as “infants” who have had the full revelation of God revealed to us in Jesus Christ—the revelation that through his cross, his resurrection, and his ascension—the ultimate underdog story—we are already on the winning team.

That’s why this prayer of Jesus is a prayer for underdogs—a reminder that we’re always going to be underdogs in the eyes of the world. It’s not the most famous of Jesus’ prayers, but it is one that we should embrace as much as the Lord’s Prayer. It’s a prayer of rejoicing—a prayer of thanksgiving for God—Father, Son, and Spirit together—who reveals his deepest secrets, his unusual ways, and his winning playbook only to the underdogs of this world.

“Many prophets and kings desired to see what you see,” Jesus told his disciples. But they couldn’t see it because they were the favorites of the world and enjoyed that status. They still do.

God loves the underdog. Jesus reveals how underdogs win. Even the demons will tremble and submit when they are confronted by people who know how to be the underdog—who know how to win the Jesus way.

Win the Moment

We don’t have to go far to see that the world may be in the fourth quarter, and Satan seems to be up big. The Church has taken a beating, pushed to the margins, no longer the center of things. That’s not a bad thing—that sort of Christianity that wanted to be the dominant political force in the world needed to lose. That playbook needed to be scrapped. Cultural Christianity was never going to win—you don’t win by playing by Satan’s rules.

A lot of those who were fans of that kind of faith have left. The Church is shrinking in the West. It looks pretty bleak, especially coming off of a year of Covid. Many tired and broken down, discouraged, looking at the scoreboard of declining attendance and influence.

Ah, but that’s prime time for the real underdogs to step up! But the irony is that we step up by stepping down and doing what Jesus does, by going where he intends to go, by not relying on our wits, our programs, our power but on the power of the Spirit and the humble approach of obedience to him and to the work of his kingdom.

A good coach will tell a team that’s down to simply do the next right thing. Win this play. Win this minute. Win this quarter. Do that enough and you’ll likely win the game.

Jesus calls us to the steady work of doing the next right thing: offering peace, bringing healing, proclaiming the kingdom, seeking the lost, obeying his word.

What is the next right thing you can do for Christ and his kingdom? What small act can you do when you leave here today to move one step closer to victory? Who will you serve? With whom will you share? To whom will you offer the good news? To whom will you offer hospitality, hope, or healing?

And we do those things especially for the underdogs of this world. As Jesus said earlier in his first sermon in Luke 4—he came to preach good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to liberate the oppressed. Jesus loves the underdog. So should we. That’s how the path to victory is achieved—one person at a time. That’s how Satan’s team goes down in flames.

“Do not rejoice” that you won a few victories against demons, Jesus told his disciples. “Rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Rejoice that you are making it on to his stat sheet and don’t be concerned about the measurements and stats the world keeps.

It may be a down time for sports, but it’s always a great time to root for the underdog—and an even better time to be one.

Jesus loves the underdog. He shows us how they, how we, will ultimately join him on the winning team.

Listen to him! Amen.