There is a game played in sideshows and arcades where the player tries to shoot as many basketballs as possible through a hoop in a limited amount of time. The goal is to make as many successful shots as you can. If you successfully make the shots in a specific time, you win a prize. If you make a lower number of successful shots but miss some attempts, you might get a smaller prize. If you miss the hoop completely and fail to get the ball in the basket, you don’t get anything at all and walk away empty-handed.
Imagine what it would it be like if you were at the basketball toss, threw ball after ball at the hoop, and missed every shot. Then someone offered to shoot for you and every basketball they threw went straight through the net, winning the biggest stuffed toy possible. Instead of walking away with the prize, however, they gave it to you. What would your reaction be?
While the basketball toss might just be a game people play at a local show or game arcade, we can think about life in a similar way. We can have aims in life, doing our best to reach our goals, hit our mark, or make our shots. When we are successful, we can feel good about ourselves, our value, and our place in the world. When we miss the mark, however, we can get down on ourselves, question ourselves, or maybe even feel worthless.
We can also think about religion like this sideshow game. Religious goals people might shoot for could be attending worship regularly, practising spiritual disciplines like reading the Bible and praying, following rituals or traditions, or performing certain acts of charity or kindness towards others. From a Christian perspective, these goals might be keeping the Ten Commandments or living according to the law of Love which Jesus taught. Religion can tell us that if we successfully hit these goals, then we will be blessed with good things in this life, the next, or both. Religion can also tell us, however, that if we miss the mark in our religious endeavours, then we will end up with nothing. People who miss the religious mark in one way or another are often referred to as ‘sinners’.
The message of Jesus is a radical departure from the way the world around us views success or failure. In Romans 5:6-8, Paul points us to God’s extravagant love in Jesus. He writes that ‘when we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners’ (v6 NLT). If we think of God’s goal for our lives as loving him and others, Paul explains that we were powerless to achieve that goal. It’s like we were standing at the basketball toss at the sideshow, throwing ball after ball towards the hoop, not able to hit even one shot. Paul goes on to say that if we were ‘upright’ (NLT) or ‘righteous’ (NIV) people, maybe someone might step in and offer to take a shot for us, or maybe even if we could call ourselves ‘good’, then someone might come to help us throw the ball through the hoop. In other words, if we were good enough people, maybe we might deserve someone’s help in winning the prize.
God’s radical love for us in Jesus doesn’t depend on whether we deserve it, or whether we are successful in achieving his goal for our lives. Paul writes that God showed his great love for us when he sent Jesus to make the ultimate sacrifice by going to the cross and dying for sinners. In the Greek language of the New Testament, ‘sin’ can mean ‘missing the mark’, so another way of hearing that Paul is saying is that Jesus gave his life for people who continually miss the mark. It’s like Jesus walks up to us when we are missing the hoop every time with the basketball and asks us to trust him by giving him the ball, so he can do for us what we can’t do for ourselves. Jesus slam dunks the ultimate act of sacrificial love by giving himself on the cross for us and every other sinner in the world. Jesus hits the goal of loving God and others perfectly, and then he gives us the prize he has won as the ultimate act of grace, which we receive through faith. No matter how badly or how many times we miss the mark in our lives, Jesus achieves the goal God has set for us by loving his Father and loving us perfectly. Jesus has won the prize of new life now and forever, and freely gifts that life to us through faith in him.
This faith makes a huge difference in our lives. Loving others can be difficult, even if we think they deserve to be loved. It takes an even greater kind of love to love someone who doesn’t deserve it but who needs it. This is the love that Paul points us to in Romans 5:6-8. When we identify as sinners for whom Jesus died, and when we acknowledge and confess that we continually miss the mark in lots of different ways in our lives, God’s love for us in Jesus keeps getting bigger and more beautiful. Paul knew the consequences of sin in his own life, and that was why God’s grace-filled love for him in Jesus made such a huge impact on him. Like Paul, God didn’t expect us to get things right before he loved us. Instead, God showed his love for us in Jesus, who gave his life for sinners, for people who miss the mark. We can find our significance, our worth, and our purpose in the good news that Jesus gave his life for us, no matter how many times we miss the mark, to make us new, right and good people.
This also gives us a different way to we see the people around us. When others miss the mark, don’t measure up, treat us poorly, or wrong us in some way, God’s love in Jesus gives us the capacity to love them in the same way God loves us. God showed his love for us by giving Jesus for us when we were still sinners, and he calls us to love others the same way. Instead of loving people only if they measure up to our expectations, or if we think that somehow they deserve it, God’s love for us in Jesus means loving the people in our lives unconditionally. Following Jesus means learning how to love people who miss the mark, whatever that might look like, in the same what that God loved us so we can extend his life-changing love to others and give them an experience of the goodness of God that we find through faith in Christ.
Maybe the next time you see a basketball shooting game, or even if you see a basketball or netball ring in a park, have a go and see how many shots you can make. If you miss the mark, don’t feel bad. Instead, use it as a reminder that when we miss God’s goal for our lives, God showed infinite and perfect love to us by sending Jesus to do for us what we can’t do for ourselves. Jesus’ death on the cross was his ultimate act of love for us, not because we deserve it, but because we need it. God’s love for sinners, for people who miss the mark, makes all the difference to us and to our relationship with others.
More to think about or discuss:
- How would you react if someone won a prize at a sideshow attraction and gave it to you?
- How might you be ‘missing the mark’ in your life? How might acknowledging that help you grow in your faith in Jesus who gave his life for sinners?
- How might you be able to show this same love to someone who you know that might be missing the mark in their life?
Pastor Eugene Online 
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