ON THE VANGUARD

TAG! YOU’RE IT!
“He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.’”
Mark 16:15

Remember back to elementary school with me and you may remember playing ‘tag’. It seemed that outside of the common rule of trying not to be tagged, the rules varied a little when I played. In some circles tag backs were allowed, while in others they were not. Safety ports were also changeable, as well how you could be safe. When playing cartoon tag you could call out a cartoon and be safe, but then in freeze tag you were only eligible to play again once you had been set free from a fellow player. So many rules and methods, yet the game only had one common goal. If you were the tagger, tag someone. If you were the free bird, don’t get tagged.
For about a year now I have been tag-team teaching a group of third grades boys in Sunday School at church. Tomorrow is or last week together and as I think back over the weeks we have shared, I cannot help but also remember the lessons we have shared. All year long we have been talking about being God’s witnesses to the world we live in. Our memory verse has been Mark 16:15, “[Jesus] said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.’” I cannot read this verse without thinking that in some way Jesus was playing tag with His disciples. Let me explain.
Mark 16:15 is written just verses before Jesus is taken up into heaven (v 19). Already the disciples have seen Jesus heal the sick, cast out demons, walk on water, be transfigured, die on a cross and then be resurrected. This is Jesus’ final moments with His disciples; His pep-talk so to say. And in His conversation with them He tags them, saying, “Now it’s your turn. Go into all the world and tell others about me. Baptize them in My name. Drive out spirits in My name. Be unharmed by evil because of My name. Heal others in My name. This is it boys. Tag! You’re it!” The game was on and with these men who quite honestly played the game well, the world was changed.
While you and I may not have been there for Jesus to tag us physically and give us this charge, we still were given it. The disciples were tagged by Jesus and then tagged others. Those others tagged someone else, who tagged someone else, who tagged someone else, who eventually tagged the person who later tagged us. Now we are the tagger. Who will we tag? The thought I leave you with is the same thought that I leave myself with, and leave with my boys tomorrow. We already know the rules on how to play the game so now it becomes a matter of playing. Will we play the game well like the disciples? I wonder who we will tag.