Happy endings

We all love a happy ending. We enjoy movies and TV programmes where the good guys win. We’re prepared to suffer the heart break along the way knowing that the screenwriters will have some way to redeem the characters by the time the credits roll.

Sometimes things don’t quite work out as we would like and we’re left with a slight touch of sadness, but at least there’s some kind of resolution as the players walk off into the sunset. The happy couple don’t always end up together but at least they come to an understanding and there’s hope for what’s ahead.

When we go to a movie, even if we know it’s going to be a weepie, we know it’ll be OK in the end.

We all wish that life could be that way but we know that so often it’s not.

As we reflect on the meaning behind Good Friday, the, trial, scourging. mocking and crucifixion of Jesus Christ, there’s a sense of hope because we know how it ends. We know that a few days later Jesus returns triumphantly. Even though the idea of the suffering Christ is hard to handle, we can get through it because we know what happens next.

Imagine though how the disciples and other followers would have felt at the time. Jesus had spoken of what was to happen but it still didn’t make sense to them. They still had no idea of what was to come. In their minds this was how it was going to end. This guy, who they had left all to follow, was now a bloodied mess dying the most brutal death imaginable. Imagine their pain. Imagine their guilt knowing that they had avoided being seen as connected to him to avoid the same fate.

This guy who spoke with such authority, who challenged the religious leaders of the day, who was going to be the one to set up a new world order was breathing his last breaths. They had seen him heal and even tell the waves and wind what to do, yet here he was dying a painful death, seemingly helpless to do anything about it.

How would Mary have felt? An angel had promised her that her son would achieve greatness and yet he was now a powerless body approaching death. She knew that he was a gift from God but what would she make of this? Had God got it wrong?

I hope that we can all, even for a second or two, feel just a small measure of the anguish that the people there on that Friday would have felt. Then hopefully it will make Sunday’s ‘happy ending’ all the more miraculous and all the more worth celebrating.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

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