Some thoughts and quotes inspired by the afterward from King’s Cross by Tim Keller:
Often the answers people give in response to the story of Jesus is that it reflects an “escapist” mindset or simply wishful thinking. Keller says “we live in one of the first eras in history where a happy ending is the mark of inferior art.” If it doesn’t portray life as meaningless or at least in a state of paradox or irony then it is seen as misleading (…as in, untrue.) He notes how even Steven Spielberg failed to win any Oscars until he started making movies that didn’t have happy endings even though the former were the ones that have held out to be his most popular. The critics, Keller says, “distain” the stories with a happy ending while it seems to be the human gut-level sense that they are in fact what must parallel reality.
Keller quotes Professor J.R.R. Tolkien on the subject of what makes a story the most “fulfilling”, which he calls“eu-catastrophe” or, the happy ending:
The joy of the happy ending…is not essentially “escapist” nor “fugitive.”…It does not deny the existence of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance [eucatastrophe]; it denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat, and in so far is evangelium (the good news), giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief….
When the sudden “turn” comes we get a piercing glimpse of joy, and heart’s desire, that for a moment passes outside the frame…and lets a gleam come through. 1
Tolkien observes how people actually have a sense that these stories are pointing to one grand Story underneath all epic stories. Keller says,
“As we read or watch them, we are being told that the world is certainly filled with danger, sorrow, and tragedy but that nonetheless there is a meaning to things, there is a difference between good and evil, and above all, there will be a final defeat of evil and even an ‘escape from death’—which Tolkien says is the quintessential happy ending.” (pg 227)
The book of Mark is a story with everything a good story contains, ending with even a “cosmic victory snatched from the jaws of defeat.” But Keller asks if this is all it is, just another story to lift our hearts? He explains how it’s not just one more story to point to the underlying Reality of the universe but that the Story of Jesus is THE underlying Reality that all the other stories are pointing to! It…The Story, happened. We can know it happened because its plot naturally plays out in all the best stories we love!
Again Keller quotes Tolkien:
“The particular quality of the ‘joy’ in a successful Fantasy can be thus explained as a sudden glimpse of the underlying reality or truth. The Gospels contain…a story of a larger kind which embraces all the essence of fairy-stories…but this story had entered history and the primary world…The birth of Christ is theeucatastrophe of Man’s history. The resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the incarnation. This story begins and ends in joy…there is no tale ever told that men would rather find was true, and none which so many skeptical men have accepted as true on its own merits.” 2
Unlike liberal theology where the resurrection is really not a “dramatic, world-changing turn” but rather just something to inspire love and good will, Keller points out that the power of The Story depends upon the fact that it is true, that it happened. He gives the hypothetical example of Paul preaching to Antiochan slaves the message of the cross as an inspiring story to love each other, instead of a cosmic “eucatastrophic” victory. What would have been their reaction? Maybe, Wow thanks, that really gives us hope within this dead-end life. But that was not Paul’s message. He spoke of a real encounter with the real flesh and blood Jesus whom they saw raised from the dead who was bringing the news of a Kingdom that will triumph over all evil and death. Their own evil and death!
The point is we need an event that really happened in order for what’s wrong with us and our world to be undone and our original state restored. No sentimental story has any power to reverse the cosmic effects of the fall. The Gospel story does indeed take evil, pain and loss seriously. Keller says, since we cannot save ourselves “nothing short of the death of the very son of God can save us. But the ‘happy ending’ of the historical resurrection is so enormous that it swallows up even the sorrow of the Cross.” God reversed the historical event of the fall with the historical event of the death and resurrection of His Son.
Without the gospel story in our hearts we will forever be lamenting that life is not really like the stories we find so resonating. But with the truth of the gospel in hand, we will be able to face the most devastating circumstances and know that they will be swallowed up in the miracle of the resurrection! “Death has been swallowed up in victory…thanks be to God who gives us the victory through Jesus Christ!” (I Cor. 15) If we know how The Story goes, we can know how our story will go.
The world is lost, Keller says, because it has lost its story, which is its context and therefore has lost its meaning and “hope for a resolution to the sufferings of the world.”
Keller ends his afterward with this beautiful summation of the gospel:
“The book of Mark has given us the story of Jesus and declared that this is actually the world’s true story as well: Jesus, the King, created all things in love. He has the power and the beauty to see His vision for the world through to its glorious end, to undo everything we have been able to do to harm it. To accomplish that, He had to come and die for it. Three days later, He rose again; and one day will come back again to usher in a renewed creation.
“The gospel is the ultimate story that shows victory coming out of defeat, strength coming out of weakness, life coming out of death, rescue from abandonment. And because it is a true story, it gives us hope because we know that life is really like that.
“It can be your story as well. God made you to love Him supremely, but He lost you. He returned to get you back, but it took the cross to do it. He absorbed your darkness so that one day you can finally and dazzlingly become your true self and take your seat at His eternal feast.” 3
Note: This is from Keller’s book, King’s Cross, where he mentions within the context of the book of Mark the idea of an eternal separation from God in “hell” for a portion of humanity for their unbelief. In his last chapter that we have summarized and highlighted in this article, any mention of eternal hell is absent. But we want to be clear about what his total presentation of the gospel would be. He is a PCA minister who adheres to (and teaches on occasion) the doctrine of an eternal hell. But the fact that it is missing here, within his gospel summary, as well as in most of his sermons we will leave it for you to surmise if he really believes it with his heart. We appreciate Dr. Keller and believe he has provided an indispensable wealth of wisdom and insight for the 21st century church. We only disagree with this one point in which he articulates only on occasion. Please do not hesitate to sit at the feet of this godly man and glean from his heart of humility, grace, and compassion for the lost and the disenfranchised among us. He offers a wealth of wisdom and vision for the modern missional church. We highly recommend ALL his books:
The Prodigal God
Counterfeit Gods
Generous Justice
The Meaning of Marriage
1. J. R. R. Tolkien, Tree and Leaf and The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth (New York: Harper Collins, 2001), pp 68-70
2. See Humphrey Carpenter, The Inklings: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and their Friends (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1979), pp. 42ff.
3. Timothy Keller, King’s Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus (New York: Dutton, 2011) p 230
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