Bracketology

“…the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63)

It’s that magical time of the year when we get to witness the greatest sporting spectacle in the world: the NCAA College basketball tournament. I love all kinds of sports, but this tournament tops them all. The Super Bowl is probably the best individual sporting event, but that is only one game. The World Series is awesome, but it is only two teams. I love the Masters, but it is only 4 days. The Olympics only happens every 4 years, and half the events are about as interesting as an enema (like “synchronized swimming”). The world cup is obviously the largest sporting event in the world, but soccer is dull. I mean, what’s the point of running up and down a field for 90 minutes and going home with the score 0-0? Isn’t that where you started? The greatest sporting event of the year is the NCAA tournament. Three weeks, 68 teams, 67 games, upsets, nail-biters, surprising runs, buzzer-beating shots, lots of scoring in an exciting fast-paced sport, and an eventual champion crowned. Every game matters because it is “one and done”. A team can lose three games in the World Series and still win it all. Lose in the NCAA tournament and you go home. It matters not how highly you are ranked. There is nothing like it in all of sports.

Everyone fills out their “bracket” trying to guess the winners of each game. You might just do it for fun, or maybe you enter an office pool for a chance at a little money. We always do one at home, and Vicki picks teams based on how cool the name of the University sounds. Xavier is one of her “darlings”. She knows less about basketball than a one year old in Zimbabwe does. She is not even sure the ball is round. Most years, she is ahead of me in points until the Final Four, when I can squeak by her because I happened to pick teams that at least have a fighting chance to win it all. This year the President picked Kansas to beat Ohio State in the final. It makes me want to rethink my bracket, because I picked the same final outcome. I always pick my beloved Jayhawks to win, but I need to adjust the rest of the field because I would not ever want to be in agreement with him.

Bracket pools and contests abound, yet in all the history of the tournament, there has never been a documented case of anyone getting every game right. Someone calculated the odds of this at a staggering 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 1. If every single person on earth filled out a different bracket once every minute, it would take over 2,500 years to get that many of them. Yet we still fill out the brackets every year hoping to hit it exactly right.

I have a book that has never missed one in nearly 4,000 years. God told the Israelites that he would send them a Prophet (Jesus Christ their Messiah) who would give them his words and that they should listen to what he said. They asked, “Well, how do we know who to believe?” That is the same question asked today by billions. How do we know what is right and wrong? God’s answer was, “When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.” (Deuteronomy 18:22) The test of prophecy and truth is 100% accuracy. If Jesus filled out a bracket, he would hit all 67 games AND be able to tell you the score of each one – something no one on earth has ever been able to do. He died for our sins and rose from the dead – again, something no one in history ever accomplished. He left us his word and promised he would return. Yet the world places more faith in the tabloids than in the Bible. Doesn’t that seem strange? Yet skeptics still outnumber believers by a wide margin.

That very same Messiah and Prophet said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6) My bracket picks Jesus. His blood paid for my sins, his resurrection guarantees my redemption, and his return is certain. Trust him today.