If you support a team that plays in red, resides in the north of England and doesn't play at home in Manchester, the chances are that (a) you support the same team as I do (b) you hate the subject of this particular blog and (c) you've already gone to another web page. But if you're still here (and I'm only here because I'm writing it), bear with me for a few minutes. I've never liked them, not even when they were winning nothing though you almost need to be my age to remember those golden years. Yet even when they were going through the doldrums, the matches against the team in red at the other end of the M62 were always the biggest of the season. I suppose it's still like that now, even though the tables are somewhat turned the other way. And don't believe anyone who says that there are other more important games for there is no rivalry quite like that found between the mighty reds and the red devils.
Still, in these strangely lean years on Merseyside, when silverware never seems to get beyond the other end of the motorway, it is hard not to have at least grudging respect for the success of the enemy a few miles up the road. After all, there has been no shortage of seasons in which to come to such a conclusion and to give credit where it is due, thought that might be stretching magnanimosity a bit far. But I do warn all gloating fans that such things come in cycles and there may be a time not far in the future, when the old grey Ferguson might be replaced by a different model and the new engine might just not be as highly tuned.
But my thoughts turned to United today, not because of any love for the team but because I saw a picture of them in our local paper this morning. Not the high flying Premiership outfit but the collection of players commonly known as 'Legends' who have been parading their skills across the province this week. For the record they lost to the other legends from up the M62 not once but twice but that is not the point of the story. No the real focus of this account is in trying to discover how you qualify to be a legend. I've just had a quick scan across the faces in the photograph and I'm finding great difficulty in recognising more than a very small handful of the participants in the line up. Now I do realise that age has taken its toll on some players but you never forget faces like Frank Stapleton, Arthur Albiston and Gary Pallister but I'm not sure where Derek Brazil, Frazer Digby, Alan McLaughlin and Dave Ryan fit into the picture of legends. Maybe that is a little unfair and I presume that the only necessary qualification to be included is to have at some time worn the shirt of the first team or at least to have been in the squad but I think most United supporters would have difficulty remember the contribution that some of these names made to the Old Trafford cause down the years. And of course they're not alone. Though I recognise most of the legends in the other reds, there are still one or two whose playing careers simply escape me and one in particular whose legend status may be more down to his drinking activities and court appearances but certainly not his on field performance. Maybe that's why they're called legends in the first place because most of the stories about them have been handed down and often are non verifiable and often fictitious, yet most of us take them as historically accurate.
So you couldn't have called Jesus a legend nor any of the stories about Him. For there is no doubt about His existence and the writers of the majority of the New Testament were all guys who lived closely with Him for several years and noted everything He did. That's why John, in the third chapter of his gospel, writes 'I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony.' Likewise, Luke records in Acts chapter 4, 'With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.' So there is no doubt about the person of Jesus nor that He was God's Son. Equally there is no doubt of the message He gave the apostles and many others about the only way to God being through Him. It's not a legend and as Paul reminds us in Romans, 'We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.' If you are still in any doubt about being united to Christ, I leave the last words to John who says, 'The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.'
