by Justin Morton
Last Sunday night millions of viewers tuned in to watch Super Bowl LIX between the two-time defending world champion Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles. This game was a rematch from the big game two years earlier. This year’s game had an estimated audience of 127 million viewers, which is a new record. While some of those watching were cheering for a particular team, others were just hoping to see a good game. Although millions of people tuned in to watch the big game, just as many probably tuned in to watch the commercials that had been produced for this special broadcast. With so many eyes glued to television sets across the world, marketers were willing to pay big bucks to land one of those coveted spots.
In fact, this year’s commercial spots during the Super Bowl went for $8 million for a 30-second ad. Just let that sink in. Some companies were willing to pay $8,000,000.00 for a relatively short commercial spot. Now, to some of us, this seems like an astronomical amount of money to spend on a 30-second advertisement. Why pay such enormous money for such a short commercial? Couldn’t there be better ways to spend such large amounts of money? While it may seem somewhat ridiculous to many of us, to these corporations, this is a small price to pay for such significant exposure. When we consider these businesses are investing in the world-wide promotion of their product in front of over 127 million viewers at one time, $8 million doesn’t really seem like so much after all.
As Christians, we too have a product we are trying to get others interested in. Our product is the transforming Gospel of Jesus Christ. And although the Gospel is free to all who listen and obey, it still can cost those of us who desire to spread the Gospel to others. It takes our time, energy, resources, courage and even our hard-earned money sometimes. Sadly, it appears the spreading of the Gospel is not worth such sacrifices for some people or congregations.
Friends, we have been commanded to “Go” and spread the greatest news the world could ever receive (Matthew 28:19-20). We have at our disposal a product the world desperately needs—a product which can change not only the lives, but also the eternity, of all of those around us. The question for each one of us is: “What’s it worth to us?” Like the companies who bought ads for the Super Bowl, do we think teaching others the good news of Jesus Christ is worth the price it may cost? I pray we do.