Could Jesus Hit a Curveball?
- Strength For Life
- 2 hours ago
- 5 min read
Every baseball player eventually faces the same humbling moment. The pitcher winds up, the ball leaves his hand, and halfway to the plate it stops behaving like a baseball should. The pitch drops, bends, and disappears under the bat. The hitter swings anyway and comes up empty.
Our hitter has just been beaten by the curveball. This pitch has embarrassed many good hitters over the years. Whether from a curveball or some other well-timed pitch, all batters fail at the plate. Even Babe Ruth, who could send a baseball into orbit, understood failure. He once said, “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” That is not only a good baseball quote, it is also a good life quote. Baseball is a game built on the foundation of failure. A Hall of Fame hitter fails seven out of every ten times at the plate and still ends up in Cooperstown.
Which brings me to a question I have joked about with ballplayers and Sunday school friends: Could Jesus hit a curveball? Obviously, the point of the question is about far more than baseball. It is about something deeper—how divine perfection interacts with a world where things frequently do not go straight.
The curveball has a way of reminding us we are not as good as we think we are. A hitter might be sitting dead red on what looks like a fastball, feeling confident, dangerous. Then the ball breaks with that curve the pitcher cooked up, and suddenly the bat cuts through nothing but air. Ted Williams once said that hitting a baseball was the hardest thing to do in sports. When perhaps the greatest pure hitter who ever lived says that, you believe him.
In a strange way, baseball teaches the same lesson the Bible teaches about human nature. Scripture says in Romans 3:23 that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Nobody bats a thousand. We all miss. And sometimes we miss badly. Baseball players learn that truth quickly. Life has a way of teaching it, too.
The reason curveballs fool hitters is because the eye wants the ball to travel straight. Our brains expect the pitch to behave like a fastball. But halfway to the plate the pitch changes direction. Life is like that. You think you have everything figured out—your plans, your timing, your expectations—and suddenly the whole thing drops out of the strike zone.
That is why Scripture warns us not to trust our own judgment too much. Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” Anyone who has ever guessed fastball and gotten a curve understands that verse.
So back to the question: Could Jesus hit a curveball?
The Gospels are silent about batting practice in Nazareth, so we are left to speculate a little. But the Bible does tell us something important about Jesus. Hebrews 4:15 explains that Christ “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”
He understood human struggle. Hunger, exhaustion, pressure—He experienced those things just like we do. If Jesus stepped into the batter’s box, He would understand the tension of the moment. Full count. Crowd watching. Pitcher trying to make you look foolish. Unlike the rest of us, He would not panic. He would probably just stand calmly and wait for the pitch. I would like to think He would not use His omniscient power to see what pitch is coming; He would play fairly.
Baseball has always been a thinking man’s sport. The physical part matters, but the mental part matters even more. Yogi Berra once said, “Baseball is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical.” The math doesn’t math, but the point stands. Fear, doubt, and impatience ruin more at-bats than bad mechanics ever will.
Scripture tells us that “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). A sound mind sees better. That is the biggest advantage Jesus would have.
One of my favorite baseball philosophers is Satchel Paige. He once said, “Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.” That sounds like something a preacher might say on Sunday. In fact, it is what Paul wrote in Philippians 3:13 about “forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.” Ballplayers understand that principle well.
Strike out? Fine. Next at-bat. Miss a ground ball? Get it next inning. The game moves forward. Life does too.
One of the beautiful things about baseball is that failure does not end the story. A player can strike out three times and still win the game with one swing in the ninth inning. The Bible calls that grace. Lamentations 3:23 says God’s mercies are “new every morning.” Baseball players say they are new every inning. You get another chance. And another. And another. That is encouraging for anyone who has ever felt like they missed their pitch in life.
So…can Jesus hit the curveball? Maybe that is the wrong question. Maybe the real lesson of the curveball is not about whether Jesus could hit it. Maybe it is about what the pitch teaches us.
Baseball reminds us that life does not always come straight down the middle. Sometimes the ball breaks late. Sometimes it drops out of sight. Sometimes we swing and miss. But faith tells us something comforting: the One who designed the game understands every pitch we face. Psalm 37:23 says, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.” If God can guide our steps, He understands the spin on the baseball too.
So maybe Jesus would not swing at the curveball. Maybe He would watch it drop out of the zone…smile a little…wait for the fastball…and then send it over the left-field wall. If you’ve watched baseball long enough, you know that is what the best hitters do.
So, when you are facing a tough pitcher, or a tough situation, do not trust your own instinct to swing or not. Instead “trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not on thine own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). And as you strike out, as you fail at the plate, and as you work the count in your favor, “thine ears shall hear a word behind thee,” the head umpire and somehow the manager in your corner as well, Jesus the Christ, saying “This is the way, walk ye in” (Isaiah 30:21).
The above article was written by Jonathan Thornton. He is a military veteran and member of NorthStone Baptist Church in Pensacola, FL. To offer him your feedback, comment below or email us at strengthforlife461@gmail.com.
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