I recently watched a 2024 movie called You Gotta’ Believe. Based on a true story, it is about a little league baseball team in Texas. The team was terrible, but they loved their coach (Luke Wilson). When the coach is diagnosed with terminal cancer, the manager (Greg Kinnear) takes over. The team is asked to play against a most difficult opponent (that no one else would play). The winner of the game would get to participate in the 2002 Little League World Series. No one believes that this terrible team would beat them. Except the team and their coach. But they do win and are catapulted into the series, where they actually make it to the championship game. Thus, the title You Gotta’ Believe! Unfortunately, they lose the hard-fought game after a record 11 innings. It’s a good underdog story.
However. In one scene, the coach’s son asks his dad (who is dying) what happens when people die. His answer? Well, I hope I get to go to heaven. And that, my friends, is Hollywood theology: no one really knows what happens when we die, so just hope for the best. But it’s just not true, and it bothers me that people will watch this film and think it is a sweet moment between father and son.
The one thing we all know about life is that it ends. It seems to me that what happens when we die is a question everyone needs to know the answer to! But I fear that most people put off thinking about death or believe whatever makes them feel good. Many people believe that if there is a God and a heaven, then good people should go there. And so they try to be good. But being good has nothing to do with going to heaven.
The scariest scripture I have ever read is when Jesus is wrapping up his great sermon on the mount. He says, “not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.”1 And then he mentions prophets and miracle workers—good people doing good things—and says, “I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me you workers of lawlessness.’”2 He calls the good religious people who obey the law “workers of lawlessness.” How could that be? Because the work they are doing is deceiving everyone (including themselves), creating confusion and promoting a lie about eternity. By believing that if they obey the laws and are good people Jesus will let them enter heaven, they are teaching everyone to do what they cannot do—that is, obey the law!
However, many people believe that they are good enough to go to heaven. They obey laws, they are nice to people, they try to do the right thing, they might even go to church occasionally. In the movie, the coach is a really good guy! Which makes him a worker of lawlessness, too! Because he is promoting the same confusion and lie about eternity. And that’s why I really don’t like the movie.
So, what is the answer to the son’s question? Jesus clearly tells those prophets and miracle workers: “I never knew you.” That’s the answer, and listen carefully. It’s not that you know Jesus because the prophets and miracle workers thought they did! They called him Lord! A lot of people say they know Jesus, but really they just know about him. The key is that Jesus knows you. The key is that when you knock on the door and Jesus answers, he says, “I know you!” How do people get to know you? Only one way: they spend time with you. So, the real question is this—Is Jesus in your life? I mean your daily life.
The title You Gotta’ Believe works on two levels: 1) the team believes that if they work hard and become a good team, they can win the championship, and 2) the coach believes that if he works hard and becomes a good person, he will go to heaven. It’s too bad that the writers didn’t think it worth their time to actually research the answer to the son’s question, What happens when people die? Because the answer is You Gotta’ Believe in Jesus. And then the title could have worked on three levels! But Hollywood is only interested in telling true stories, which does not necessarily mean they tell the truth.
1Matthew 7i:21 2Matthew 7:23
