I love going to the movies. I like it for a number of reasons, but one of them is to see how pop culture is interpreting biblical truths. Initially, I became interested in this when I took a pop culture class with Dr. Doug Blount and read The Gospel According to the Simpsons. My wife is not a moviegoer, so there is usually only an annual movie outing for us as a couple. This year, the winner was The Blind Side which stars Sandra Bullock. It is about a family, the Tuohy's, that adopted a homeless boy that later because and NFL player. I will not spoil it for you, but it was a great movie. We loved almost everything about it.
There is a scene where Michael Oher arrives at the Christian Academy for the first day of school. As he walks onto the campus, there is a sign that reads "With man this is possible, With God all things are possible." Doesn't that sound great? It really portrays the popular idea that God helps those who help themselves. Unfortunately, this is not the message of the Bible, and it is not the gospel.
Interestingly, the sign in the movie almost accurately presents Matthew 19:26, which reads "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible" (BTW, this is a common thing in pop culture...they usually only make the slightest changes to the truth). The message of the Bible, and the gospel, is that God helps man because he is totally unable to help himself. The context of that truth falls within the story of the rich young ruler. After he walked away from the Savior, Jesus replied that it would be “easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:23). At this, the disciples were dismayed. The common idea at that time was that people became wealthy as a result of God’s favor. They thought that if anyone could be certain of salvation, it was the wealthy. That is why the asked, “Who can be saved?” (Matthew 19:25).
The answer is…“with man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” That is the gospel, the grace of God, the Good News.
As it turns out, the movie presents a pretty good picture of the gospel. By himself, Michael would not have had a place to live, been able to achieve the grades to play sports, or even been able to graduate. It was totally by the grace of the Tuohy’s that Michael was able to accomplish those things. We all are like Michael; we live in this world as destitute, helpless people. And by the absolute grace of God, he gives us everything we have, not because we deserve it, but because it brings Him pleasure.
The truth is that we are continually in need of God’s grace. We are in need to be rescued by the gospel every minute of every day. Left to ourselves, we will often choose to sin, be selfish, greedy, or lustful. However, through gifts of grace from God, we are able to overcome sin. We, as Christians, must humbly walk in this life constantly aware of our own need for grace. If so, we may be more willing to share it with others when we see theirs.
I totally missed that in the movie. Thanks Norm for pointing this out. I was also sad to see in inteviews of both the Tuohys and Michael that they never mentioned God related to the events in their lives that spawned this movie. In fact Michael was upset how Hollywood portrayed him as unsure about playing football until Sandra Bullock straightens him out in practice one day. He was upset because it made him look weak and not possessing the natural skill HE knew he had all along. He could have taken that opportunity to give credit to the one person that really did deserve it!
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