Trump: ‘You’re not in a good position. You don’t have the cards right now. With us, you start having cards.’
Zelenskyy: ‘I’m not playing cards. I’m very serious, Mr. President… I’m the president in a war.’
As the world continues to respond to the extraordinary exchange between the US and Ukrainian Presidents on 28 February, I’m struggling to enter into the reflective spirit of Lent. With internal angst, external noise, and heavy concern for our world, I find myself returning to Zelenskyy’s words: ‘I’m not playing cards.’ We cannot predict this statement’s full implications, but what has resonated with me is how this man, at a moment more testing than many of us will ever face, refused to accept the black-and-white premise of geopolitical powerplay and held onto the grey zone of humanity.
It strikes me, looking at the Lenten readings, that this is often God’s reaction to what might seem to humans to be a sewn-up game. Think Pharoah and Moses, the devil and Jesus in the desert, chief priests and scribes prosecuting Jesus… God says to the party who thinks they hold all the cards that they are not playing a zero-sum game, and to the party who seemingly doesn’t hold any cards that, with God, the future is bigger than the past because there is more than enough grace, mercy and love, for everyone.
It can be hard to trust in this when we consider the state of our world, our streets, our institutions. Perhaps, like me, you don’t really feel up to being told ‘you are dust and to dust you shall return’ and following Jesus into the Lenten desert, when you are all too aware of broken bodies, hearts and relationships. Perhaps the thought of giving something up in a culture which prioritises profits, progress and performance is too much when you already feel that you don’t hold any cards. Perhaps you feel that the odds are stacked against you.
But the desert is not our destination, and we are not playing cards. Lent will end with Easter, reminding us that, against all odds, even the trump card of death cannot defeat God’s desire to be with us. Because love is stronger than death.
This Lent, let us challenge the win/lose paradigm and strive to love deeper and wider – it might be messy, uncomfortable, even painful, but we can’t lose. Because with God it’s never a zero-sum game.
Ivan Yuen
