Life here in Nebraska is a shade strange. The college football team is the thermostat for the collective morale of the state. In years’ past they have put together several years of dominance on a national stage. The result was a dramatic infusion of Nebraskan pride in their tradition and dominance. The football team has become the identity for so many here. For the majority of you who reside outside of the state this may look like what you experience in your respective cities and regions, and perhaps it is true. However, what happened yesterday catapulted Cornhusker fans into an embarrassingly distinguished class of sports fanaticism.
News reports out of Lincoln allege that Nebraska’s much maligned defensive coordinator, Kevin Cosgrove received the following message on his answering machine following Nebraska’s epic 76-39 meltdown against Kansas:
“Go back to where you (expletive) came from you (expletive), before I (expletive) kill ya,”
From the Lincoln Journal Star: According to the warrant, the coordinator reported “receiving numerous phone messages containing vulgar language in the past weeks, and upon hearing this voice message Kevin Cosgrove reported he was concerned for his safety.”
This is a little more than a guy having an extra beer or two and getting loose with a prank call, the reports indicate several calls and explicit threats to kill the coach. In effort to try to think and evaluate everything biblically I can’t help but see the venom that is being spewed as frustrated claims for worship and supremacy. Cosgrove is seen by this guy as the impediment for the ‘glorious’ religious experience of being a Husker fan.
We see this repeatedly in life on a ‘smaller’ but no less evil scale. Consider the gossip, slander, personal attacks, unkind speech, etc. that we employ when someone does or says something outside of what we sanction. The heart cries out for supremacy and often times its tool for conquering the competition is the sword of the tongue (cf. James 3.1-8).
With a biblically informed mind we understand that these ‘words’ are not synonymous with ‘firing blanks’ but rather are flowing from a heart that is bent on satisfying its insatiable desire for self-supremacy and is therefore producing streams of hatred, violence, murder, and all kinds of evil. The Apostle John writes that anyone who “hates his brother is a murderer” (1 John 3.15), Jesus spoke that these wicked things are sourced and fermented in the human heart : For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (Mark 7:21-23). The human heart is truly the most dangerous place on the planet.
Passionate, self-worshipping, fallen humanity will eliminate everything that stands in the way of the exaltation of self. We see this most drastically in the way in which Jesus was treated during his earthly ministry and ultimately in his rejection and crucifixion. Jesus’ ministry was a continual indictment on the selfish pursuits of humanity at the expense of the glory of God. Jesus repeatedly confronted the error of replacing the glory of God for the glory of self. It was this continual crushing of the idols of self-supremacy that kindled the flames of human hatred and wrath and ultimately accomplished Calvary.
So when I read in my sports page that an angry fan is threatening to kill a coach that is messing with his football tradition I see a snapshot of the human heart. The raging hatred modeled by this guy is the same that accomplishes gossip, slander, unkindness, hatred, and other evil deeds. And it is from the same seed that when full grown did not just talk about murder but actually accomplished it, most vividly in the crucifixion of God’s own Son.
