In 1995 a new video game series was started that would soon take over the video game world and invade our culture on a level rarely seen.
The game was called Pocket Monsters. It involved human trainers who would catch these pocket monsters and train them to fight each other as a sport.
This video game series has now become the 2nd most popular video game series of all time. Having earned $90 billion worldwide, (according to TitleMax.com), it is by far the biggest money-earning video game series of all time. To most of us this game is known as Pokémon.
One of the things that made Pokémon stand out, in the beginning, was the message, Gotta Catch ‘Em All. The goal of the game is simple, but not easy. In 1995 your job as a Pokémon trainer was to roam around the Pokémon universe and capture all 151 Pokémon.
This was an extremely difficult and challenging mission, but you could make it easier by trading Pokémon with your friends. You could connect your Gameboy systems together with a Game Link Cable and help each other by swapping Pokémon you’d caught with your friends.
This gameplay feature, along with the compelling storyline and brilliance of making you buy two games to complete the mission, propelled Pokémon to its fast rise. Now today twenty-five years later the message is still resonating with new fans of this video game franchise.
The message, complete with theme song, Gotta Catch ‘Em All, is a powerful message that Jesus was proclaiming over two thousand years ago.
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
– Matthew 28:16-20 (ESV) (emphasis added)
The mission is intense, it is massive, and we can’t do it on our own. Working together as the body of Christ is the only way that we’ll be able to reach the entire world with the love of Jesus. We’ll need to link up just like players of Pokémon linked up to help each other accomplish the mission.
Jesus never intended for any person to get left behind. He never desired for anyone to go to hell. The Bible makes it clear,
The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.
– 2 Peter 3:9 (NLT)
There are four particular lines near the beginning of the Pokémon theme song, Gotta Catch ‘Em All, that I think speaks perfectly to the hear that God wants us to have.
To catch them is my real test,
To train them is my cause.
I will travel across the land,
Searching far and wide.
Just like the goal of the video game, Pokémon, is to catch all of the pocket monsters, so too is God’s goal for us is to become fishers of men. To catch them by telling of the great love of Jesus is our real test and to train them is our eternal cause.
