God’s Project Hail Mary

By: Pastor Stephen Mitchell

It was about a year ago at a pool party at a friend’s house that a challenge was given to me. “Steve, you’ve got to read this book, it’s a powerful story, that can be funny one moment and very emotional the next”. The book in question was “Project Hail Mary” and my friend handed me the book, which was very thick. The problem for me is that I like to read non-fiction but have a difficult time with reading science fiction. Nevertheless, eventually I did read it (well technically I did the audiobook in the end) and I have to say I was truly touched and read to see the new movie which just came out starring Ryan Gosling as the main character, Dr. Grace.

I don’t want to give major plot holes away, but what is clear even from the movie trailer, is that Project Hail Mary involves an urgent emergency where humanity and the world are in trouble. If something isn’t done, humanity will perish and therefore, our best shot at saving the world is a mission called, ‘Project Hail Mary’ involving a space mission to find an answer to the hopeless peril that faces our planet. What is also clear from the trailers and interviews is that the movie involves an alien named Rocky, themes of friendship, and sacrifice. It’s a powerful story that could not be more relevant considering the times we are living in and the state of our world.

The world is a mess. Wars, division, brokenness, incivility, evil all abound in our society today. It’s very clear there is something fundamentally wrong with the world around us. But that’s not all, the moral and biblical truth is, we are a mess. We are broken. We are empty. We are lost. We are longing. We are dying. The Bible says that at the dawn of time, our first two ancestors, Adam and Eve, chose to reject God’s way for their own way, and we have been perpetuating this pattern the Scriptures call sin, ever since. God warned in the Garden that if we chose to sin, we would surely die. Adam and Eve died that day, maybe not physically but certainly spiritually. A barrier, a chasm came to stand between the Creator and His creation, because sin separates us from God, because He is Holy and we are not.

Watching Project Hail Mary reminded me of Easter. Like the world in the book and movie, our world needs saving. Humanity is dying and perishing, and it will take someone willing to save us and someone willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to do so. That someone was Jesus Christ. God could have allowed humanity to spiral with no hope for salvation, but instead we are told from before time began, God planned a rescue mission of His own to save us from our sins.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Easter means that we are loved. God demonstrated His love for us by sending His Son to give His life for ours. But why did Jesus have to die to save the world? Because God is love but He is also just and holy. Justice demanded that something had to be done with our sin. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, lived the perfect life we could never live and gave the ultimate sacrifice, taking upon Himself, the judgement we deserved so that we would not have to. And then He was resurrected from the dead, validating that His rescue mission was successful and that His claims of divinity were truthful.

Easter means that we can live a new life, not from watching a TED talk or trying some self-help formula at bettering ourselves but by inviting the Jesus who lives today to live in our hearts and to change our lives. The Bible says, “Therefore If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has passed away; behold the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). The word new doesn’t refer to something that is recent, like the latest smartphones or newest model cars or latest technological innovations, rather it refers to being made different. A relationship with Jesus Christ will not only save you and I from hell for our sins, but it means we get to have a heart filling, life changing relationship with Him, now and forever.

Easter also means hope, hope for today, hope for tomorrow, and hope beyond the grave. The only thing that seems to be for sure in this life is that nothing is for sure, but Easter gives us something else we can be sure about: We can be sure that our sins are forgiven, our lives are forever changed and we will one day be with God all through trusting in, believing in and receiving the Good news that 2,000 years ago God’s Son died on the cross for our sins and three days later was raised from the dead.

Whether you realize it or not, you need saving.  God’s Project Hail Mary has a name: Jesus.

“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through Him.”- John 3:17

Pastor Stephen Mitchell is the Senior Pastor of Trinity Bible Church in Maryland. He also is the host of a regular podcast, Real Christian Talk with Pastor Steve, available on all podcast platforms.