What if soccer isn’t just a game, but a reflection of our values? An uncomfortable reflection on the World Cup, somewhere between the Sermon on the Mount, competition, and the question: What truly makes our hearts beat? By Kai Mester
The World Cup is underway.
Millions of people are on the edge of their seats. Hearts are racing. Flags are being raised. Jerseys are being put on. Plans are being rescheduled. Friendships are temporarily put on hold. Entire nations are hoping for the big win.
And somewhere amid fan zones, public viewings, and cheers of jubilation, a strange question arises:
What would Jesus actually think about soccer?
Not about exercise, sports, or playing together.
But about the principle behind it.
Before you read on: This is not an attack on soccer fans. Nor is it a call to put the ball away forever.
It’s an invitation to reflect.
Try for a moment not to view soccer through the lens of our culture, but through the lens of the Sermon on the Mount.
Then it suddenly becomes very interesting.
The Strange Logic of the Game
Every soccer game has a clear goal:
You are supposed to get what the other team must not get.
You are supposed to win. The other team is supposed to lose.
The more decisively they lose, the greater your success.
That sounds perfectly normal.
Until you compare it with the words of Jesus:
“Love your enemies.” “Bless those who curse you.” “Do good to those who hate you.” Suddenly, a tension arises.
Because soccer doesn’t thrive on both sides winning.
Soccer thrives on one side losing.
The Eighth Commandment on the Soccer Field
“Thou shalt not steal.”
Of course, no one steals a wallet in soccer.
But what happens all the time?
You take the ball away from the other player.
More precisely:
You try to take something away from him that he wants to keep.
The defender calls it ball recovery.
The attacker calls it pressing.
The spectators call it intense play.
But viewed objectively, the basic idea is:
“I want what you currently have.”
The Ninth Commandment and the Art of Deception
Every good player masters feints.
Body feints. Feint left, run right. You signal one thing and do another.
The more successful the feint, the louder the applause.
In everyday life, we wouldn’t necessarily consider this exemplary behavior. And yet, we let it shape us. Because on the soccer field, it’s celebrated.
The Tenth Commandment as a Principle of the Game
“You shall not covet.”
But that is precisely what competition thrives on.
Every team covets the same trophy.
The same victory. The same title. The same glory.
Two groups simultaneously want to possess something that, in the end, can belong to only one.
The conflict is not a side effect. It is the driving force of the game.
The Opponent’s Holy of Holies
It may sound exaggerated.
But think about it for a moment.
A team’s entire strategy consists of penetrating the opponent’s most heavily defended area.
Where they are most vulnerable.
Where they defend everything.
That is where the decisive breakthrough must happen.
Of course, soccer isn’t adultery.
But the symbolism is remarkable.
The game thrives on overcoming boundaries that the other side wants to maintain with all their might. Penetrating into the other’s most intimate space against their will.
Why does scoring a goal feel so good?
A goal often triggers emotional outbursts.
People jump to their feet. They scream. They hug strangers. They throw their arms in the air. Some even cry.
The joy is genuine.
But it doesn’t stem solely from one’s own success.
It also arises from the opponent’s failure.
No goal without a loser. No victory without a defeat.
When soccer becomes a religion
This is where things get more serious. Stadiums become cathedrals. Fans make pilgrimages across entire countries. Sacred times are set aside.
Chants are memorized. Symbols are revered. Legends are celebrated.
Children know the life stories of players better than the stories in the Bible.
Some wear their stars’ names on their backs.
Some know every statistic.
Some spend more time on soccer than on God.
At this point, the question of the first commandment suddenly becomes uncomfortable.
The Problem with Prayers Before Kickoff
It gets even stranger when both teams pray for God’s help to win.
What is God supposed to do?
Help one team and let the other down?
Should the Creator of the universe take sides so that Team A defeats Team B?
Jesus taught his followers to pray, “Your will be done.”
Not, “Let us win.”
The Sixth Commandment—Killing Without Bloodshed?
“You shall not murder.”
At first glance, this commandment seems to have nothing at all to do with soccer.
And indeed, no one is killed on the field.
But Jesus later expanded on this commandment in a surprising way. In the Sermon on the Mount, he spoke not only of killing itself, but also of the attitudes of the heart: contempt, hatred, and the belittling of others.
This raises an uncomfortable question.
How often does the joy of a victory stem in part from the fact that the other team has lost?
Why do fans sometimes celebrate not only their own success but also the opponent’s failure?
Why are opposing teams mocked, insulted, or symbolically “destroyed”?
You hear phrases like:
“We took them down.”
“We destroyed them.”
“We wiped them out.”
Of course, these are just figures of speech.
And yet they reveal something about the deeper impulses of the human heart.
The world loves victories over others. The Kingdom of God loves the salvation of others.
Jesus did not come to annihilate his enemies, but to die for them.
Perhaps this is precisely where the greatest contrast lies between the logic of the Gospel and the logic of competition: The Son of God did not see his opponent as a loser, but as a person he wanted to win over.
The Big Question
Perhaps the real problem isn’t soccer at all.
Perhaps it lies in the fact that we have become so accustomed to the principles of this world that they seem self-evident to us.
We cheer for the victory of the stronger side.
We celebrate triumph over the opponent.
We admire fame, status, and superiority.
And we hardly even notice how foreign all of this actually is to the spirit of Jesus.
The Sermon on the Mount describes a completely different world.
A world in which it is not the victor who is honored, but the servant.
In which the opponent is not defeated, but loved.
In which it is not the first, but the last who is great.
On the cross, Jesus did not win by defeating his opponents.
But by dying for them.
Perhaps that is why Christians should not ask first:
“Is watching soccer compatible with being a Christian?”
But rather: “Why does this actually excite me?”
What exactly draws my heart?
The joy of the game?
Or the joy of victory over others?
For whatever excites our hearts shapes us.
And perhaps some of us would realize that during a World Cup, we spend hours spellbound watching a competition whose fundamental principle is exactly the opposite of what Jesus taught and exemplified.
If that’s true, then the question in the end isn’t whether Jesus would watch the final.
But rather, whether people filled with his Spirit can even still feel the desire to sit there and watch.
And perhaps the question that Jesus has been asking his followers for two thousand years strikes a chord with you today as well:
“Where is your treasure? What does your heart long for?”
Source: hoffnung-weltweit.info
