Not since June 6, 2007, when decades of back pain left him immobilized on the golf course and in desperate need of emergency surgery. Upon awaking from the procedure post-op, he had no feeling, no strength, no stability in his right foot. He had what doctors call "drop foot." From that point on he could no longer take out the trash or wash dishes. The most mundane of household chores are near impossible and besides the constant pain that comes from standing, walking or carrying; nearly anything can knock him off balance and land him on his back. For years, Matta was able to hide his condition. Few people outside the Buckeye family even knew of the disability that required he take handicap driver's education. He'd hid it well with a leg brace and black tennis shoes that matched the black suit he wore courtside.
As this 9 foot step ladder loomed above him like the Key Tower in Cleveland, he hesitated. But only for a moment. With his assistants and his players literally holding his feet in place, he climbed the four steps required to make the final snips and free the net that the team had worked so hard to tear down.
Now this is not simply a feel-good story of personal victory over adversity. This is a picture of the Gospel. 1 Corinthians 12 tells us "The body does not consist of one member but of many. . ." That "God arranged the members in the body, each one of them as he chose. . .and that there should be no division in the body, but that the members have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together, if one member is honored, all rejoice together." The point is that this is not a personal victory, but a corporate one. God gives different members of the body unique strengths and UNIQUE WEAKNESSES to point out his grace at work in the body--as a whole. Sure, Matta could coach his team to victory on the court, but he couldn't enjoy the victory on his own. It would take his players and his assistants physically supporting him each step of the way up that ladder to truly delight in the victory that was his. With an assistant holding each foot and players supporting each leg, Coach Matta climbed one, two, three, four steps with a newly gained support and balance. And is this not exactly how God has created the church to function? We have a victory that is ours in Christ Jesus, a victorious kingdom that is ours both now partially and awaits us in eternity. But that victory cannot be enjoyed fully without the other members spurring us on to good deeds and encouraging one another, as we see the Day drawing near (Heb. 10:24-25)
Now some will say, you can't equate a basketball team, who is made up of both the unregenarate and regenerate, with the church or with the Gospel. This is not a declaration of confidence on the condition of Matta's soul or anyone else's. After all, if Jesus can use shrewd managers, and meals with prostitutes to give pictures of the gospel of grace, shouldn't we be looking harder to see living parables of the gospel in the world around us? John Broadus says, "Nature teems with analogies of moral truth. Calvin took it further: "While we contemplate in all creatures. . .those immense riches of wisdom, justice, goodness, and power we should not merely run over them cursorily, and so to speak, with a fleeting glance; but we should ponder them at length, turn them over in our minds seriously and faithfully, and recollect them repeatedly."
Few people saw Matta cut down the net, even fewer people the picture of God's goodness to Matta (and to us). I pray that God would give us gospel glasses, that we would see his goodness in the little things, that we'd see hints and allusions to his grace, his gospel in all things.
