Reconciliation and Redemption

Friday night for Deb and I usually is movie night. We typically get something from Netflix or occasionally go to the movies. We watched last week the movie "Manchester by the Sea" because the actor Casey Affleck won best actor. We know there are various types of movies and genres, but this one was just flat out depressing. Without getting into the details (spoiler alert), Affleck plays Lee, a man who loses his family in a tragic event and then some 10 years later his brother dies and in his will he is asked to be the guardian of his nephew, Patrick. As we were watching it, we kept waiting and waiting for something to happen. This something Deb articulated as reconciliation or redemption. We were left at the end with two characters who were wholly unsympathetic and the story line as unfulfilling.

The human heart longs for at least one of these two themes, reconciliation or redemption. Everything else leaves us bereft. It doesn't mean only good news - often it comes at the heals of bad and tragic news. I think this week of Robert Godwin, the elderly man senselessly gunned down seemingly at random and posted on Facebook. What do we make of this? Out of this comes reconciliation. The family forgives a man they never met. I am struck by their interview with Anderson Cooper.

I talked to a friend this past week who was a managing editor of a major newspaper and I asked him why the press seems to only report bad news. He said it was because "bad news is easier to find". The Godwin family would be more than justified to want vengeance and retribution. And in the end, the killer committed suicide. If that was where it was left, we could understand it. But they take it a step further in forgiving this man. That has to be supernatural. They understood reconciliation was an essential part of the healing process.  The other was redemption. Robert Godwin was celebrated yesterday in Cleveland. This was a man who was far from perfect but one who by all accounts lived his life for his God and his family. So in this one tragic incident we have God working out these principles of reconciliation and redemption to His own glory and to our own healing.

The Final Score

After the Cavaliers had won the NBA championship, I started reliving the moments of Game 7 and now have purchased through iTunes Games 5,6, and 7 so I can relive them in even more detail. I can recite the key moments of the game - "Oh, blocked by James" or "Kyrie Irving for 3 puts it up, it's good". The common thread of all these games is I can watch it knowing the final score. Usually, I can pick up a thing or two each time I watch it. The details are more fun when you know your team wins. I did the same thing with the World Series games 2,3, and 4 all games they won. I did download game 7 because it was so epic, but it wasn't so much fun because even though there was the homerun to tie the game, I knew the end result was not in our favor.

 

As I think about Easter, I am reminded that we know the final score. The final score was etched when Christ rose from the grave. Good has won - evil has lost. The price has been paid for the penalty of sin and the payment accepted. But unlike the Cavs, even though the final score is won and our team wins, the day to day game still lives on. Satan does not give up even though he knows the final score. If he can't win, maybe he can convince enough people not to believe their team has won. Or maybe he can convince others of an alternate reality that the game is still very much in doubt.

So I need to live my life in the reality of the final score. Easter very much reminds me of that. Jesus said "It is Finished" - the word tetelestai used there is the final score. There is victory in Jesus. Doesn't always feel like it every day, but since it is reality, it is fact. My feelings don't change the final score. What does that do to me? What does it change?  This needs to be a daily reminder. As Paul says, the resurrection is everything. Without it, we are "of all men most to be pitied". But with it "it is finished" (tetelestai).