In the World's Finale
Words from a classic novel on hope for difficult times
I came across this great quote from The Brothers Karamazov
I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage, like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small Euclidean mind of man, that in the world’s finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, of all the blood they’ve shed; that it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened.
It was in this great CT profile of writer Daniel Nayeri, written by Jonathan Crump. Nayeri has this as the epigram to his beautiful book Everything Sad Is Untrue. I listened to the audiobook a couple of years ago and loved it.
This quote by Dostoevsky was so timely for me to read. The world has always been broken, but sometimes the brokenness inches closer. We have a family in our small group grieving the loss of their son last year. A family in our Christian school just buried a beloved husband, father, and community leader after a sudden, unexpected death. A friend is going through a divorce. Two other friends are enduring cancer. Another friend has a difficult financial situation.
And then I zoom out and see a lot of suffering. I attended the International Religious Freedom Summit last week in Washington, D.C. and learned, afresh, about the severe persecution happening to many Christian brothers and sisters around the world and the oppression of many other minority faiths. I especially think of the brothers I know from Ukraine, whom I met last year. Constant bombing of their cities with promises of peace, but no let-up in the war. I think of the folks in Nigeria, where terrorist radicals routinely kidnap and murder Christians. And here in the US, while we enjoy much freedom and liberty, seemingly intractable social problems divide the country, and Christians spend their days arguing online over which 15-minute Super Bowl halftime show was best. For what it’s worth, I didn’t watch either.
Hope is essential, and here in the famed novel, Dostoevsky reaches for it. I’m generally a positive person, but even I get discouraged by hard things, both personal and in the world. Yet the truth of the Christian story can buoy us. I’m teaching apologetics this semester, and I just finished telling my class why Christianity being true really matters, both to persuade those who don’t believe and to bolster the flagging faith of those who do.
When my mom died a couple of years ago, it was the fact of Jesus’ resurrection that gave me hope.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26
I grieved Mom’s death as Jesus grieved Lazarus death. Death is the work of the enemy. And yet not as “those without hope” because I know that because of Jesus’ resurrection, those in Christ will be raised again, body and soul. I really believe this to be true.
To know that Christ will make all things new doesn’t make the pain go away. We walk through, not around, the valley of the shadow of death. But we walk with the one who holds us, who will get us to the other side, who promises that this life is not all there is. There is a better world coming.
To those who reject religion, this kind of hope seems fanciful, foolish, and ridiculous. But I don’t see much comfort in the alternative, a cold and dreary world that runs in random and where injustice is never made fully right, sickness is never healed, and death is never defeated. It is hard to understand, sometimes, a God who allows bad things. It’s even harder for me to find comfort in a belief that there isn’t a God who is working all of this for something beautiful. Faith is inescapable. Faith in nothing is a far worse framework than faith in God.
So I’m not sure where you are as you read this. Perhaps you are walking through a difficult season of life or maybe you are not. Maybe you are grieved by a confused and chaotic world are maybe you are not. Wherever you are, I think you can be comforted by the words from that great novel. Even more so, with the hope—grounded in truth—that Christ is making all things new.
I travelled this week to Huntsville, Alabama, to record an episode of the Room for Nuance podcast. It was a great, expansive conversation. I’m not sure when it will be released, but it was a wonderful time there with the host, Sean Demars, who is a faithful pastor and new friend.
A few other interviews with me have released:
A few notes:
If you are preparing for Easter, you’ll love my book, The Characters of Easter
If you are thinking about America’s 250 celebration, you’ll love my book, In Defense of Christian Patriotism.