The FA Cup Third Round delivered everything we love about the competition: shocks, routs, and stories that make you cheer, groan, or do both at the same time. Sixth-tier Macclesfield beating Crystal Palace 2–1? Absolutely magical. Manchester City 10–1 Exeter? Brutal.

Two extremes of the same weekend, and both tell us more about how humans react than about God’s involvement — which is exactly what Scripture speaks to.

Let’s get one thing straight: the Bible doesn’t explain the scoreline.

God didn’t hand Macclesfield the win, nor did he wave a wand over City’s goals. What Scripture does do is help us think about how we respond to surprises, victories, and defeats — whether we’re on the pitch or just glued to the sofa with a cuppa.

Macclesfield’s win delights because it flips the script. Bigger club, bigger budget, bigger stars — and they still lost. Paul puts it well: God delights in using what the world calls weak to frustrate human boasting (1 Corinthians 1). That doesn’t mean God magically picks underdogs; it’s a reminder not to measure worth by reputation, status, or how shiny your boots are. Macclesfield’s victory shows how easy it is to assume might equals right — and how spectacularly wrong that assumption can be.

City’s rout of Exeter swings the pendulum the other way. Excellence isn’t a problem — Scripture celebrates hard work, preparation, and skill (Ecclesiastes 9). The trick is not letting success whisper, “It’s all me.” Moses warned Israel about that very temptation (Deuteronomy 8). Nebuchadnezzar’s downfall wasn’t Babylon’s grandeur; it was him admiring it instead of God (Daniel 4). City’s dominance reminds us that big wins can make us a little too pleased with ourselves if we’re not careful.

Exeter’s part of the story matters too. Being small isn’t automatically heroic, but Scripture insists that power carries responsibility. God holds the strong accountable not for competing, but for forgetting they answer to someone higher (Amos 5). In football terms, that doesn’t mean easing off at 2–0 — just keeping a bit of humility while you pile on the goals.

Put the two matches together and you get a neat package:

Macclesfield says, “Don’t panic when you’re small.” City says, “Don’t get cocky when you’re strong.” Scripture isn’t explaining the matches — it’s explaining us. And that’s why football keeps lending itself to parables it never intended to write.

As the Cup moves into the Fourth Round, whether it’s giant-killers or goal machines, we’d do well to watch not just the scores, but our reactions — a little wonder, a little humility, and maybe a cuppa in hand, because football is as much about character as it is about goals.

This article was originally written for and published in Evangelicals Now. Find all their features here.

Graham Daniels

Graham is the General Director, he is also a director of Cambridge United FC and an associate staff member at St Andrew the Great church in Cambridge.