The Finisher by Merry Sorrells

If you are a baseball fan, or a good Christian, or both, you will love this edition of Storyteller!

Picture this, it was a cool and balmy night in October of 2003, the 8th inning of Game 7 of the American League Championship Series. The Red Sox were in the lead with the Yankees trailing 5 - 2, when out of the bullpen walks Mariano Rivera, the trusted finisher of the New York Yankees. The season hung in the balance and when Rivera took the mound, the tense crowd started roaring. Most closers are brought in to protect the lead, in this case, Rivera was brought in to keep the game within reach.

What happened next went down in Yankees history. The Yankees scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 8th to tie the game 5–5. Rivera then continued pitching and held the Red Sox scoreless into extra innings.

Why this matters. The lesson to be learned from this triumph of a game wasn’t about athleticism, or perseverance, but rather, it is a lesson about finishing. It’s about completion. Rivera entered into a losing situation. His job that night was to stop the damage and give his team a chance. He turned a likely loss into a possible win. Then, in the 11th inning, Aaron Boone hit a walk-off home run to win the game. 

Unlike most closer situations, Rivera didn’t step-in to finish a win, he was put in to make a win possible. He did just that. By holding the Red Sox scoreless for 3 innings, he handed the Yankees a chance to save themselves, and they did!

OK, fast forward to church last Sunday. While listening to the scriptural selection, something sparked inside me when I heard the words from a verse in Hebrews* where Jesus was referred to as "the author and finisher of our faith." Those words grabbed me. I quietly asked myself what it means to be a finisher of our faith. The thought came to me that this verse was encouraging believers to look to Jesus as the source and completion of their spiritual journey. 

I took this line of thinking a step further and posited that when Jesus whispered from the cross, “It is finished,”** he wasn’t accepting defeat, he was declaring completion. Everything he did up to that point was to demonstrate the healing power of God. The phrase, “it is finished” was an affirmation that he was put on earth to make our win, the win of all mankind, possible.

Stay with me for a minute here while I make the connection to tie these two stories together.

Rivera, known for his strong faith, frequently gave thanks to God after big moments rather than taking the praise for himself. As he saw it, his job, his purpose on the team, was to create opportunities to give the team a chance.  

In that momentous game, Mariano Rivera stepped in early for the New York Yankees, not to hold or celebrate a lead, but to endure. Three innings. No lead. Just pressure. He held the line against the Boston Red Sox until, finally, the moment arrived—a swing, a home run, a victory. He didn’t finish the game himself, but without him, the Yankees would never have finished with a win.

On a hill called Golgotha, outside the city of Jerusalem, Jesus Christ faced a different kind of moment. The sky has grown dark. The crowd was divided—some grieving, some mocking, most uncertain of what they were witnessing. The weight of suffering that Jesus endured was real.  It was physical, and public. There was no relief coming, no one to take his place. And yet, in that ominous setting—amid pain, silence, and seeming defeat—he spoke with purpose, not resignation. “It is finished.” It wasn’t a whisper, or a last gasp, it was an intentional declaration, a quiet celebration that the mission he came to fulfill was about to be complete. Of all the lessons he taught, here was the culminating moment. Jesus didn’t step in to “finish the win” for us, he stepped in to demonstrate to all the world how to finish it for ourselves, to give us the chance and to show us the way. Through his final demonstration on the cross he taught us how to triumph over sin, disease and death. This was the turning point, where what looked like defeat was transformed to become the moment of victory. Jesus marked out the path for eternal victory.

I partnered with ChatGPT to write this story. The idea came to me while sitting in church and listening to the Scriptural Selection. I turned to Chat for the stats of the baseball game and the details of both stories. I made the connection, and wrote the story.  Chat designed the infographic.

The countdown is on. I am about 30 days from heading back to New Orleans to launch my next adventure. In addition to consulting, coaching, and working on school projects, my time will be spent doing a lot of writing. I will continue to tell stories. In addition to my own, I will begin to tell the stories of others, everything from heritage stories for small businesses to stories about ordinary people who ground themselves in faith and find themselves performing heroic acts, the quiet heroes of yesterday and today. There are so many stories to tell.  

*   The Bible, Hebrews 12:2 (KJV)

**  The Bible, John 19:30 (KJV)