Grace at Fenway

Every once in a while, there is a story from the world of sports that just warms my heart. One of those moments happened this past week in a Major League Baseball game at Fenway Park.

In the third inning of last Monday night’s game, Seattle Mariners designated hitter Dominic Canzone hit a weak chopper off Boston Red Sox pitcher Payton Tolle. The hit was not great… certainly not good enough to get a base hit off of. Tolle snagged the ball and was clearly on a path to beat Canzone to first base, cutting off his unrealistic hopes of getting a lucky single.

That is when the greatest sports moment of the week took place.

Knowing he was going to be tagged out, Canzone stopped in his tracks. He was obviously going to be out. But instead of slapping a triumphant tag across Canzone’s body, Tolle opened his arms, gestured toward Canzone, and with a slight smile said, “Bring it in for the big one.”

The two grown men, large, impressive-looking professional athletes, embraced in a warm, impromptu, friendly hug—effectively tagging Canzone out in the process.

And that was the end of the play.

It was actually really fun to watch. You don’t see that kind of thing very often.

The whole thing got me thinking (oddly enough) about the reality of law and true, Biblical grace.

Laws are important.

In order for any community, society, or people group to survive and thrive, there needs to be a clear, consistent, and coherent understanding of what is permissible and what is not. This is essential for the ongoing flourishing of a society.

When there is no clear, consistent, and coherent understanding of the law, you don’t get a better-functioning society.

You get anarchy!

Perhaps the clearest biblical example of this is seen in the book of Judges. We are told repeatedly throughout the book that “in those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

So… what did people think was right in their own eyes?

Here is a quick and disturbing list:

• Household theft turned into a homemade idol and private shrine.
• A Levite was rented out as a personal priest, then stolen by another tribe.
• The tribe of Dan wiped out a quiet city and planted its own rival sanctuary.
• Unspeakable acts led to the death of a concubine in an Israelite town called Gibeah, followed by her body being cut into twelve pieces and sent around the country as a summons.
• Civil war nearly exterminated the tribe of Benjamin.
• Another Israelite town was massacred so its virgins could be seized as wives.
• Young women were abducted from a festival at Shiloh to supply still more wives.

Yeah.

It’s not good.

Laws are good.

Everyone doing what is right in their own eyes is NOT good.

Laws are important because they establish a standard outside of ourselves. They tell us that there is such a thing as right and wrong—and that what I feel is right doesn’t necessarily make it right.

But here’s where things get interesting:

Where does grace come in?

We sometimes talk about grace as though grace means that the law doesn’t matter anymore.

But that’s not really grace.

If you have a law that says the speed limit on a given road is 55 miles per hour, that law should absolutely be obeyed and enforced. If you drive 56, you’ve broken the law.

A police officer might pull you over and say, “We both know that you broke the law, but I’m not going to give you a ticket this time.”

That feels good, doesn’t it?

You know that you did wrong, but the officer showed you mercy and didn’t make you pay the penalty you deserved.

But notice something important:

The law didn’t change.

The speed limit was still 55.

You were still going 56.

You were still guilty of breaking the law.

The officer simply chose not to enforce the penalty on that particular occasion.

And that distinction matters.

Because what happens when grace becomes the law?

What happens when the standard is grace instead of the law?

If everyone is entitled to forgiveness, then forgiveness isn’t really forgiveness anymore. If mercy is something that is owed to me, then it ceases to be mercy.

And we actually do something similar with speed limits.

No one really drives 55 in a 55 mph zone. We know there will probably be some unofficial “grace” up to at least 62 mph. In fact, we’d probably be furious and think it was unjust to be pulled over for driving 58 in a 55 mph zone.

“It’s only 3 mph over the speed limit!” we would say, completely forgetting the meaning of the word limit.

The problem isn’t that the law is bad.

The problem is that we don’t like being held accountable to the law.

And if we’re not careful, we can do the same thing with God’s law.

We can begin by breaking God’s standards.

Then we redefine God’s standards.

Then we convince ourselves that the new standard is actually better.

And eventually, we end up right back where the book of Judges began:

Everyone does what is right in his own eyes.

And the results are not good.

So what is the answer?

Should the law be done away with?

Should it be applied with an iron fist?

Should grace reign supreme, even if it means lowering the standard of what is right and wrong?

No.

I think the answer was most clearly on display at Fenway Park on Monday night.

The rules are the rules.

The law is the law.

What we typically think of as “grace” would be for Payton Tolle to realize that he had the opportunity to tag Dominic Canzone out on the way to first base, but instead let him reach the base without being tagged.

No.

That would be ridiculous.

The hit wasn’t sufficient for a single. The rules were clear. Canzone was out.

So Tolle should slap the ball across Canzone’s chest with as much force as possible, hopefully knocking the wind out of him, right?

No.

That would just be mean.

Instead, Tolle did something beautiful.

He followed the rules.

He recorded the out.

He didn’t pretend that Canzone had earned a base hit when he hadn’t.

But he also didn’t treat Canzone like an enemy.

He enforced the rule with outstretched arms and a slight smile, offering to “bring it in for the big one.”

And maybe that’s a better picture of grace than we sometimes imagine.

Grace doesn’t mean that God pretends our sin isn’t sin.

It doesn’t mean that He lowers His standard of righteousness.

It doesn’t mean that the law suddenly doesn’t matter.

In fact, the reason grace is so amazing is because the law is real, sin is real, guilt is real, and the consequences are real.

But God doesn’t leave us there.

For those of us who have put our faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, we have discovered that God doesn’t simply ignore our sin.

He dealt with it.

Jesus took the penalty that we deserved.

At the cross, God’s justice was not discarded, and God’s grace was not denied.

Jesus took the penalty we deserved.

The law shows us our guilt.

Grace shows us God’s kindness toward guilty people.

And Jesus is where those two realities meet.

The rules are still the rules.

Right is still right.

Wrong is still wrong.

But for those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, the Judge who has every right to condemn us has instead opened His arms, saying…

“Bring it in for the big one.”