Quick summary: Max discovers he has a powerful energy flowing through him, but doesn’t know how to control or contain it. Steel, an alien life force, and friend of Max’s dead father comes along to protect Max, partner with him, and help him harness the energy for good.
It’s not going to win awards, but that doesn’t mean families aren’t going to see it and it doesn’t mean it doesn’t have some good things to say. Here are twelve great topics for discussion about matters of life and faith from Max Steel.
1. Something inexplicable is happening to him.
When Max discovers his power, he can’t explain it. He doesn’t know what is happening, only that things are very different. This is like the blind man in the Bible who Jesus healed. He couldn’t explain it and couldn’t give a theological answer to who Jesus was. All he knew was that he was once blind and now he could see. When Jesus enters our lives, the experience can be similar to this for us as well. We know things are different inside of us. We have the power of the Holy Spirit in us. We may not know what’s happening or be able to explain it, but that doesn’t mean we don’t know something has definitely changed…for the better.
- Have you ever had a time in your life where things were happening to you/in you that you couldn’t explain? What did you do about that? Did you experience something like that when you first met Jesus?
2. You can know a lot about someone without really knowing them and second hand information isn’t the same as first-hand.
When Max and his mom moved back to their old town, Max realized that everyone in town seemed to know more about his dad than he did. Sure, he’d heard about his dad from his mom, but that’s not the same as knowing him. Add to that, his mom left out the details he most wanted to know about. There are topics she avoided, like his work and how he died. This shows us two important facts about relationships. One, you can know a lot about someone without really knowing them. Two, when you only get second-hand information you may find that there are giant gaps in what you know. You need first-hand information. This is why it’s so critical in our relationship with God to not just know about him, but to actually have a relationship with Him. For our relationship to actually be personal, we need to have first-hand information. In other words, we need to talk with Him ourselves, through prayer, and to read about Him ourselves in our Bibles.
- Would you say that you know Jesus/God, or that you just know about Him? Is most of your information about God first or second-hand? What are the dangers of second-hand information?
3. You can miss what you don’t know.
Max never really knew his dad, but he still missed him. That’s a strange feeling, to miss something you never knew, but it’s entirely possible. There are a couple of take-a-ways from this idea. First, we need to be compassionate with people who are grieving loss, even when it’s the loss of something or someone they never knew or never had. (Like a kid missing a parent they never knew or a person who is unable to have children missing the children they never had.) Second, we need to do like Max and recognize when we, ourselves, are grieving the loss of something even if we never knew it. We need to recognize it, and allow ourselves to grieve it. That grief maybe imaginary in some ways, but it is also very real.
- Have you ever experienced loss and grief? Was it for something you knew, or like Max, something that you didn’t know? How do you respond to people around you that are struggling with feeling loss?
4. Sacrifice: laying down your life for someone else’s
Max’s dad gave his life for his son. This is very much like Jesus who gave his life for the world. The Bible says that “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Paul expands this idea a bit in Romans 5:6-8 when he mentions that while someone might die for a good person or maybe a father might die for a son, no one but God would die for someone weak and ungodly. “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
- Have you ever known anyone who gave his/her life for someone else? Do you know that Christ died for you? How does that make you feel?
5. Doing what’s right, even when it’s costly
Max’s dad died for his son. Steel lived a different sort of sacrifice. He was willing to do what was right, even though it meant he went against his own kind. He lost his people, denied his family (so to speak) and became an outcast in a foreign world, all because he wanted to do what was right. Doing what’s right can be costly. It’s still right. And God rewards those who are faithful.
- Has doing the right thing ever cost you? Have you ever made someone else pay for doing what was right? How much are you willing to sacrifice to do the right thing?
6. Our worst enemies are those we believe to be friends.
Miles had been a friend of Max’s parents (or so they thought). He was actually an enemy. These are the worst sort of enemies, the kind who you believe to be friends. They are the ones who are closest to you and who can do the most damage. Jesus was also hurt by a close friend—Judas, one of his 12 closest friends and followers. Only a friend could have gotten close enough to Jesus to betray him with a kiss. The thing is, when we are betrayed by those closest to us, those we believe to be friends, we have a God who understands our pain and sorrow. We don’t suffer alone.
- Have you ever been betrayed by a friend? Does it give you comfort to know Jesus understands exactly what you’re going through?
7. Our enemy lies to us where it hurts most.
Because Miles was a friend, he had a pretty good idea how to hurt Max the most. He hurt him with lies and lied to him about the things Max was most sensitive about, most desperate about. “You think you’re a warrior like your father? You’re nothing like him. You’re all alone and you cannot win.” These were Max’s biggest fears: that he was weak; that he wouldn’t live up to his father’s legacy; that he wasn’t like his father (his father’s image); that he was all alone; and that he was doomed to fail. Actually, I dare say these are pretty close to the very fears we all have. We’re alone. We’ll fail. We’re weak. We are less than our parents (and therefore a disappointment to them). These aren’t just our fears, but they are also the things our enemy is constantly whispering to us, lying to us. We are Max. We too have an enemy that knows exactly where to hit us. And just like Max, our enemy punches with lies first and foremost.
- Have you ever believed any of those lies about yourself that Miles told Max? Which ones are hardest for you (most tempting for you to believe): You’re alone. You’ll fail. You’re weak. You are less than your parents (and therefore a disappointment to them).?? Do you know that your enemy works first and foremost in lies? Do you recognize when he is lying to you?
8. We defeat the enemy with truth.
Max realized that Miles was lying to him. He knew that the lies weren’t true and he fought back by speaking the truth. “Hey! You were wrong. I’m not alone.” If he had believed the truth, he wouldn’t have looked for Steel’s support. He would have been a victim. But he knew the lie for what it was and when he spoke the truth, it lost its power. Jesus also fought the enemy and his lies with truth. You can read in Matthew 4 how Satan lied to Jesus and how he answered every lie with the truth. When he did so, Satan had nothing else to attack Jesus with, so he left. The Bible says that when we resist the devil, he will flee (James 4:7). That’s a promise. The deal is, we have to know the truth if we are to resist the devil with it, and the truth is found in God’s word. All the more reason to know the Word of God, don’t you think?!
- To defeat the enemy, we have to recognize the lies and speak God’s truth instead—have you ever done this in your own life? How well would you say you know God’s truth, and therefore how well would you say you are prepared to fight the enemy’s lies?
9. We are not alone.
Max wasn’t alone. He had his mother and his girlfriend and most importantly in the moment, he had Steel. Steel was always with him (if he allowed him to be). Steel was able to not only be near him, but be one with him, and together they had a power Max didn’t have on his own. Together, they were unstoppable. The problem was that Max didn’t always allow Steel in his life. He wasn’t always willing to work with Steel and listen to Steel’s wisdom and guidance. This is a lot like our life with the Holy Spirit. He was given to us, by our Heavenly Father, to be our guide, our comforter, our helper, and even our power source. He knows how to do everything and when we become one with Him we are unstoppable. The problem is that we aren’t always willing to listen to His advice, or to accept His presence and His power in our lives. We are not alone because God promises He will never leave us. We do, however, leave Him far too often. He is there, but we have to let him in. He doesn’t force Himself on us.
- Why did Max sometimes resist Steel’s presence in his life? Why do you think we humans and/or you personally sometimes resist the Holy Spirit’s presence in our/your lives/life? What do we have to gain with a partnership with the Holy Spirit? What do we have to lose without it? How does it make you feel to know that God promises he will never leave you or forsake you…that you are never alone?
10. Sometimes the best punishment is to give a person what they want.
Miles was power hungry. He wanted the power that Max and Steel could harness. Steel wisely pointed out that “A thirsty man is prone to drowning.” In other words, you can get too much of a good thing. Max saw that truth in his life. “When I have too much [power], I tend to explode.” So what did they do? They gave Miles the power he wanted…all of it…and he couldn’t handle it. Sometimes the best punishment is to give a person what they want. This is why God cautions us in the Bible against excess. Self-control is one of the fruit of His Spirit. Paul talks about this in athlete terms. He says the athletes who win make their bodies their slaves rather than being slaves to their bodies (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). They practice discipline and restraint and self-control. Self-control means we have control over our own selves and desires, and that we aren’t slaves to any of our appetites. Miles is a cautionary tale of a man who was a slave to his thirst and it caused him to drown.
- Why is self-control so important? What does it mean, “A thirsty man is prone to drowning”? Have you ever been a slave to your desires? Have you ever gotten what you wanted and then found it wasn’t satisfying, or that you maybe got too much of a good thing?
11. Sometimes we do more harm than good when we try to protect someone, and control is an illusion.
At the end of the movie, we hear Max’s mom lamenting that all her good intentions really produced more harm than good. “I was trying to help you and instead I almost got you killed.” “I thought I could protect you but I can’t.” First off, control is an illusion. God is the only one who is in control. So often, our attempts to protect someone are really just attempts to control the situation. Usually this is motivated by fear. Fear means we aren’t trusting God. When we do trust in God’s perfect love for us, we have nothing to fear (1 John 4:18). Max’s mom meant well, but that doesn’t mean her methods were good or successful. In fact, they backfired. Things birthed out of fear nearly always do. The problem was, Molly didn’t have anything to put her trust in except for her own strength. She didn’t have God. She didn’t even know Steel was still around (who is kind of a god-like figure in this movie). Her only real options were to try to control the situation to protect her son, or to trust her son with the weight of the truth about his father and his origin. WE have another option. WE can trust the Lord. WE can look to Him for advice on how to handle hard situations. WE can rest knowing He is good and He loves us and He is in control.
- Have you ever done more harm than good trying to protect someone? Have you ever realized your sense of control was totally false? How does perfect love cast out fear—what does that mean/how does it work? If you really knew God loved you, was in control and was totally good, would that make it easier for you to give up control and not be afraid?
12. Our identity is linked to our origin.
Max’s Dad realized a great truth. He told Molly that Max would “need to know where he came from to know who he is.” For Max, he came from a human mom and an alien father. To understand who he was and why he was different from other kids his age, he needed to know who his daddy was. The same is true for us. Identity is linked to origin. Many people go through life lost as to who they are because they don’t look into their origin. I’m not just talking about their biological origin, like their mothers and fathers, but their actual origin—like their Maker. If we are to understand who we really are, we need to know who created us and what we were created for. We need to know our Maker, our Heavenly Father. This is where we will find our identity.
- Why was it important for Max to know where he came from to know who he was? Do you feel like it’s important for you to do the same? If you knew you were created by the God of the universe and that He had a specific purpose in mind for you, do you think it would be important for you to find that out to understand who you really are?