The movie, Million Dollar Arm, is one of my top five favorite baseball movies. I recently re-watched the movie for the first time in a while. As I re-watched the film, I caught on to a few details that I had overlooked before. Primarily, I noticed two little quotes that were brilliant. I noticed that these quotes contained a quick taste of the gospel – unintentional by the writers, of course. I always get excited when I get little gospel tastes in movies and such.
The main character in the movie is sports agent J.B. Bernstein – played masterfully by Jon Hamm. Throughout the movie, Bernstein is a class-A jerk. He is an extremely self-centered man who holds everyone around him to ridiculous standards. However, there are several characters that continually treat Bernstein with grace. They decidedly don’t treat him as he deserves; but instead show kindness over and over to him – regardless of how much he doesn’t deserve it; or notice it for that matter. As the end of the film nears, Bernstein finally realizes just how awful of a person he has been to all those around him. He is at the end of himself. But there at wits end, grace breaks through his stone wall of pride.
Bernstein had been in charge of the training of two young boys (probably in their early twenties) from India, who were completely out of their element in Los Angeles, California (where the training took place), being that they had never stepped foot out of their humble villages in India. Bernstein had viewed these boys simply as hopeful checks to cash in on – as people to take advantage of. The boys’ first Major League tryout had been a complete disaster and Bernstein was on the verge of losing his livelihood because of it. But the boys’ kindness had finally led Bernstein to repentance. After a heart to heart moment, Bernstein reveals to the boys that he had landed them one final tryout. In that moment Bernstein utters these words, “No matter what happens, there is nothing you can do to let me down.” The grace he had been shown had changed him. But there was something powerful in those words. It was a non-works based acceptance. Why is it that there is nothing they can do to let him down? – Because they could certainly perform terribly in the next tryout, causing Bernstein to lose everything. Bernstein had learned to love and accept these boys simply for being fellow humans. He had come to the realization that human dignity is not found in our performance, or the value we can contribute to society; rather it is found in simply being human.
Aside from that, there is something else powerful in the words of J.B. Bernstein, “No matter what happens, there is nothing you can do to let me down.” Do you see the gospel there? For those who have come to Christ in repentance and faith, no matter what happens, there is nothing you can do to let God down. He is not let down by your repeated failures. He is proud of you. He accepts you. He approves of you. He loves you. Not because of your works or your “holy” contributions; but because he has chosen you before the foundation of the world to be his.
The striking thing is, when Bernstein uttered those words to the young athletes, it didn’t cause them to have an apathetic attitude toward their next tryout. In fact, it caused them to give it their all. Why is that? It’s because grace motivates action. Acceptance that is not based on our success frees us to give our all in our actions without fear of losing that acceptance, should we fail. So it is in our relationship with God.
There is another gospel element in the movie, I wanted to bring to light, but I have decided to do so in a future post. Stayed tuned.
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