Set Your Mind Above

S2 E36 - Breaking Barriers #42

April 15, 2022 Season 2 Episode 36
Set Your Mind Above
S2 E36 - Breaking Barriers #42
Show Notes Transcript

Today is a special day, because it is Jackie Robinson Day. Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball on April 15th, 1947. Depsite much oppression and hardship, through his example and willingness to press on, he paved the way for black atheletes to compete side by side with white men, as it always should have been. To honor him, today all players in the MLB wear his number 42. What was once divided is now brought together, as barriers were broken. Well...Jesus Christ has also broken down walls of hostility. Through his willingness to suffer, he brought Jews & Gentiles together and made them one in the kingdom of God. Where there once was hostility now is only unity and peace because of the cross of Christ. 

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Hey everybody, and welcome back to the Set Your Mind Above Podcast! I’m your host BJ Sipe – I’m a Christian, a preacher, a husband, and a father. In this podcast we take everyday, ordinary events and explore how they can teach us extraordinary, eternal truths. I’m so glad that you joined me for this episode. Now, let’s open up our minds, our hearts, and our Bible’s together. 

Today is an important day, being April 15th. Most of you when you see that date probably think about “tax day” – which we just recently discussed. Naturally, that is of course very important – but that’s not what I was referencing in this particular instance. You see, 75 years ago to the day, on April 15th, 1947, the color barrier was broken for the very first time in Major League Baseball by a man named Jackie Robinson. Robinson lived during a time where racial segregation was not only applauded, but demanded in every facet of life, including professional sports. In that day players were segregated – white players only would play in Major League Baseball, while black players would play in the Negro Leagues, where Robinson began. But on that day 75 years ago, something incredible happened. A black man took the field with 8 other white men and took his spot on the diamond at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York. Donning the number 42, Jackie Robinson was cheered on by a crowd that had looked different than any other previous game. For out of the 26,623 fans that were in attendance, over 14,000 of them were black men, women, and children. Jackie was not cheered on by all in attendance, however, nor was his presence welcomed by many different ball clubs, fans, or commentators. Despite the fact that he was opposed and even persecuted in many ways by acts of hate & racism, Jackie stood by his position of non-violence. He responded by shutting up all the naysayers by proving that he belonged on that field more than any other man, regardless of color. He would go on in 1947 to win the prestigious Rookie of the Year award, to win the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1949, and be included as an All-Star six years in a row. There was no doubt when you watched Robinson play that you were watching one of the best to ever play the game. While even among his own team his presence was opposed by smaller minded individuals, it was clear that hearts of men in that locker room one by one were changed. Supposedly, though it is debated, Pee Wee Reese at one point walked over to Jackie Robinson who was being verbally pummeled by naysayers in the crowd and simply just put his arm around him while staring back into the eyes of these angry white men. It didn’t mater what insults or threats they hurled down, Jackie was his teammate and his friend. In the movie 42, staring Harrison Ford & the late Chadwick Boseman, they reduplicate this scene with the following dialogue from Pee Wee to Robinson: “Maybe one day we will all wear 42. That way they won't be able to tell us apart.” Well, ever since 2004, that’s exactly what happens on this day. Dubbed “Jackie Robinson Day”, all Major League players on every team all wear his number that is otherwise retired – number 42. This day is an important day to remember, because it marks a moment in history in which barriers were broken down between white & black men. It marks a step forward in our nation from prejudice, hatred, and arrogance towards inclusion, peace, and humility. Jackie Robinson paved the way for African American players to make their way into professional sports, along with other men like Kenny Washington (NFL) and Earl Lloyd (NBA). I am thankful for men like this, for the unwarranted hardship they endured willingly in order to break down barriers that never should have existed in the first place. Because of their courage, their efforts, and their sacrifices, two groups of people were joined together as one – as it remains to this day. I hope in our hearts that today all of us are wearing the number 42. 

As I thought about these things today, my mind couldn’t help but go to another who broke down barriers between two groups of people as well. However, this was not concerning sports, schools, restrooms, or any other form of segregation or division like that. It deals with something vastly more important. In Ephesians 2, we read the following concerning what was accomplished by our Lord in vv. 11-22, “So, then, remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh—called “the uncircumcised” by those called “the circumcised,” which is done in the flesh by human hands. At that time you were without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In his flesh, he made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace. He did this so that he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by which he put the hostility to death. He came and proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So, then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole building, being put together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you are also being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit.” Before Christ, there was great hostility and prejudice from the Jews towards the Gentiles. They viewed them as unworthy, unholy, and unfit for the people of God. But when Jesus came onto the scene, everything changed. The gospel that would be preached to the Jews would also be preached to the Gentiles! Entrance into the kingdom of God was not just for those who were of the people of Israel by blood, but for all who would come to God in faith – regardless of their nationality! Peter came to understand this very important truth in Acts 10, where Peter declares, “Now I truly understand that God doesn’t show favoritism, but in every nation the person who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” Jesus broken down the wall of hostility between the Jew and the Gentile, taking two groups of people that were once enemies and making them not only into one people, but into a family. Once strangers, now the Gentiles were fellow citizens and saints in the kingdom of God. Once foreigners, now the Gentiles and Jews together were made into the household of God, a dwelling place for the Spirit of the Lord. The Holy Spirit resides in the same way to all those of faith, regardless of nationality, gender, skin color, socio-economic class, etc. All things that would normally divide us otherwise are done away with in the kingdom of God. Paul again would write in Galatians 3:27-29, “For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.” Praise be to God for Jesus Christ, our Savior & King, who through his own suffering breaks down barriers by reconciling the hearts of all to him in perfect unity. 

Thank you for tuning in to today’s episode, and I would invite you back Tuesdays-Fridays for a brand-new episode each day. If you haven’t already, be sure to find us on Facebook for occasional announcements and special video sessions. If you have benefited from this podcast, please if you’re able be sure to share it with someone else that you think could benefit from it as well. Until next time, know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each & every day set our minds above.